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Staphylococcus aureus infections present a significant threat to the global healthcare system. The increasing resistance to existing antibiotics and their limited efficacy underscores the urgent need to identify new antibacterial agents with low toxicity to effectively combat various S. aureus infections. Hence, in this study, we have screened T-muurolol for possible interactions with several S. aureus-specific bacterial proteins to establish its potential as an alternative antibacterial agent. Based on its binding affinity and interactions with amino acids, T-muurolol was identified as a potential inhibitor of S. aureus lipase, dihydrofolate reductase, penicillin-binding protein 2a, D-Ala:D-Ala ligase, and ribosome protection proteins tetracycline resistance determinant (RPP TetM), which indicates its potentiality against S. aureus and its multi-drug-resistant strains. Also, T-muurolol exhibited good antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity by showing strong binding interactions with flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAD(P)H) oxidase, and cyclooxygenase-2. Consequently, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and recalculating binding free energies elucidated its binding interaction stability with targeted proteins. Furthermore, quantum chemical structure analysis based on density functional theory (DFT) depicted a higher energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (EHOMO-LUMO) with a lower chemical potential index, and moderate electrophilicity suggests its chemical hardness and stability and less polarizability and reactivity. Additionally, pharmacological parameters based on ADMET, Lipinski's rules, and bioactivity score validated it as a promising drug candidate with high activity toward ion channel modulators, nuclear receptor ligands, and enzyme inhibitors. In conclusion, the current findings suggest T-muurolol as a promising alternative antibacterial agent that might be a potential phytochemical-based drug against S. aureus. This study also suggests further clinical research before human application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at the question of using Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities as a marketing tool from the customers' perspective in the Slovak food market. Five research questions and hypotheses were set to reach the given aim. The research was based on a questionnaire survey with 1254 respondents. The frequency and contingency tables were used to evaluate the obtained data, one sample proportion Z test, Pearson Chi-square test, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Based on the results, although the customers are familiar with CSR, many respondents need to learn more about these activities. CSR activities must be more actively applied and communicated by the food companies. In most cases, Slovak customers perceive the sustainability of food companies and their CSR activities as a marketing communication tool that can build a positive image of the company. At the threshold of the 3rd millennium, CSR is also connected with rationality and irrationality in creating preferences in consumer shopping behavior. While the way that food is produced can be changed through regulation, the communication of CSR and sustainability activities are major drivers for the development of food companies. Trustworthiness is one of the key factors, and customers play a key role in this direction. The solved issue has a huge impact on the success of the food companies in the market, and, therefore, it would be suitable to pay attention to this issue and conduct similar research in other E.U. countries and on their food companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability and quality of school facilities has long been a hot topic, not only at the level of self-government, but also in respect of the whole public administration within the context of Slovakia. COVID-19 and the current military conflict in Ukraine are jointly putting increased pressure on local self-governments as the founders of kindergartens and primary schools. Whether the availability and quality of school facilities is a determinant of local development is a question for which there are very few studies. The aim of this paper is to identify long-term satisfaction with the availability and quality of kindergartens and primary schools in the Červený Kameň microregion; this is understood in the context of these institutions serving as an important determinant of local development. In this paper, a qualitative evaluation (survey) of parents of students in the Čerevený Kameň microregion was conducted. In order to increase the objectivity of the obtained results, the survey was conducted two times with an interval of 7 years (2014 vs. 2021). Our results show that parents perceive the availability and quality in the same way even over a long period, but without confirmed statistically significant differences. At the same time, however, we found that satisfaction with the analyzed school facilities changed over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper proposes a method for constructing a system for predicting defects and failures of power equipment and the time of their occurrence based on the joint solution of regression and classification problems using machine learning methods. A distinctive feature of this method is the use of the equipment's technical condition index as an informative parameter. The results of calculating and visualizing the technical condition index in relation to the electro-hydraulic automatic control system of hydropower turbine when predicting the defect "clogging of drainage channels" showed that its determination both for an equipment and for a group of its functional units allows one to quickly and with the required accuracy assess the arising technological disturbances in the operation of power equipment. In order to predict the behavior of the technical condition index of the automatic control system of the turbine, the optimal tuning of the LSTM model of the recurrent neural network was developed and carried out. The result of the application of the model was the forecast of the technical condition index achievement and the limiting characteristic according to the current time data on its values. The developed model accurately predicted the behavior of the technical condition index at time intervals of 3 and 10 h, which made it possible to draw a conclusion about its applicability for early identification of the investigated defect in the automatic control system of the turbine. Thus, we can conclude that the joint solution of regression and classification problems using an information parameter in the form of a technical condition index allows one to develop systems for predicting defects, one significant advantage of which is the ability to early determine the development of degradation phenomena in power equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments in the Slovak Republic are important in public administration and form an important part of the public sector, as they provide various public services. Until 1990, all public services were provided only by the state. The reform of public administration began in 1990 with the decentralization of competencies. Several competencies were transferred to local governments from the state, and thus municipalities began to provide public services that the state previously provided. Registry offices were the first to be acquired by local governments from the state. This study aimed to characterize the transfer of competencies and their financing from state administration to local government using the example of registry offices in the Slovak Republic. In the paper, we evaluated the financing of this competency from 2007 to 2018 at the level of individual regions of the Slovak Republic. The results of the analysis and testing of hypotheses indicated that a higher number of inhabitants in individual regions did not affect the number of actions at these offices, despite the fact that the main role of the registry office is to keep registry books, in which events, such as births, weddings, and deaths, are registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The municipality generally uses its property to perform self-governing functions, and public or business activities. In the conditions of the Slovak Republic, the municipality operates either as a legal entity in its own name or carries out business activities with the help of a contributory and budgetary organization or business firm established by the municipality. Revenues from business activities form an important part of the revenue of local self-government budgets. The aim of this paper was an economic evaluation of the management of municipal firms at the level of rural local self-governments in the conditions of the Slovak Republic on the basis of selected economic indicators. At the same time, we analyzed the relationship between selected economic indicators in relation to the size, lifespan and number of employees of the firm. The analysis was performed in the time period 2015–2019 on a sample of municipal firms at the level of rural local self-governments. For the analysis, we used selected mathematical–statistical methods (Shapiro–Wilk test, Kruskal–Wallis test, and regression analysis). The analysis showed that the differences in the profitability of municipal firms from the point of view of the region in which they operate as well as from the point of view of the number of employees is not statistically significant. Statistical significance was not demonstrated even within the volume of revenue of municipal firms from the point of view of the region in which the municipal firm operates. The volume of revenues of municipal enterprises with the population of the municipality as well as the length of time of operation on the market is growing, but these are not the only factors on which these results depend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As our research has shown, the number of foreign tourists visiting Czechia rose in the period between 2012 and 2017, as did hotel occupancy and accommodation prices. The growth of the local economy, the new airlines from Asia and the USA to Prague, and the perception of the Czech metropolis as a safe destination, played a big part in it. Compared to other accommodation facilities, the number of 5- and 4-star hotels is still growing in Czechia, thus better meeting the needs of demanding tourists. According to experience and statistical data, these are non-European tourists and tourists with above-average income. The growth in the number of these tourists had a strong influence on the increase in the number of hotels and the increase in the capacity of the highest-category hotels. Building new, quality hotels, and renovating historical buildings to a higher standard to provide an outstanding experience for foreign tourists staying in Czechia, can contribute to achieving the sustainability of the tourism sector in the country. Also mentioned is the current impact of the coronavirus pandemic on tourism in Czechia. A statistical analysis of time series of indicators and hypothesis testing were the main methods used in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to express changes in consumer preferences for certain food products due to the income growth of the population, and to specify the way producers or retailers of these commodities respond to the changes in customer choices. The methodology of this study is based on comparing the economic model of consumer behavior in the market to the analysis of demand elasticity, together with its practical application to food products of the same brand offered by multinational chains in Czechia and Germany. The study presents a new survey, including a comparison of the quality and safety of food products offered by retail chains in Czechia and Germany, and a comparison with similar bio-quality products offered by Czech farmers in their shops or at farmers' markets. As the comparison indicates, unless multinational producers change their current behavior, consumers will prefer purchasing products from Czech producers, including products offered at farmers' markets, and shop in neighboring countries where higher-quality original products may be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is focused on the issues of private labels, their establishment, perception and preference by selected groups of respondents, namely consumers under the age of 25 and also inhabitants of selected V4 countries (Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic). An anonymous questionnaire survey was chosen as the main research method. A total of 3038 respondents aged under 25 participated—1064 respondents were from Slovakia, 973 from Hungary and 1001 from Czech Republic. This research method was subsequently supplemented with selected statistical methods evaluated in the XL Stat statistical program, SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1 and SAS 9.4, where hypotheses were examined by Pearson's Chi-Square Test, Mantel–Haenszel Chi-square test, Cramer's V contingency coefficient, Pearson's correlation coefficient, Friedman's test, Kruskal–Wallis test, Correspondence analysis and Phi Coefficient. The results of the survey can be perceived more than positively as most of the respondents declared that they knew the concept of private labels; more than 80% of respondents buy them either regularly or sporadically; just over 32% of respondents explicitly prefer them in their purchases and in terms of the perception of the quality, almost 75% of respondents think the quality of private label products is comparable to that of traditional brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]