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Previous studies noted the scantiness of diagnostic instruments for the assessment of students' understanding of fundamental biochemistry concepts. Consequently, within this study, a four-tier test for the examination of secondary school students' conceptual understanding of amino acids, proteins, and enzymes has been developed. Items in the test consist of the answer tier, the reason tier, and a confidence rating for each of these tiers. Following the three-phase development process, the final version of the test, comprising eight items, was administered to 123 students in the main study. The internal consistency of both cognitive scores and confidence ratings proved to be adequate (Cronbach's alpha values were 0.76 and 0.87, respectively) and the test-retest reliability was also satisfactory (Pearson's r value was 0.74 for the cognitive scores and 0.88 for the confidence ratings). If the correct responses to both the answer and the reason tier of items are considered, the mean score on the test was 3 out of 8 (38%). The students were more confident when producing the correct compared to the wrong answers but, overall, their confidence was not high (3.65 out of 6). Furthermore, the confidence in the incorrect answers that were provided (3.52 out of 6) indicates the presence of alternative conceptions. Such results show that the content regarding amino acids, proteins, and enzymes is conceptually challenging for the students. Therefore, the test can help secondary school teachers to uncover the students' conceptual difficulties related to this content and develop effective strategies for their remediation and prevention.

The objective of the current paper is to study the influence of the selected business and institutional determinants on the annual effective tax rates in banks in Serbia. Panel data regression models are applied on 113 observations, covering the period from 2017 to 2021, where the accounting and current effective tax rates are used as a measure of the actual tax burden. The results show that the effective tax rate in banks in Serbia is significantly below the statutory level. Furthermore, for each data set, the coefficients of changes in the effective tax rate are calculated, and the most adequate model is selected using the Hausman and Breusch-Pagan tests. In the first model, the biggest change in the effective tax rates is caused by change in leverage, merger and acquisition processes and the bank size. The presence of loan loss provisions in the model completely highlights the impact of profitability and leverage. Finally, in the last model, banks with a profit before tax can manage effective tax rates and tax burdens by regulating capitalization levels. The results of this study are of interest for economy creators and for business managers in banks, helping them in effective tax planning and managing the results.

We are witnessing the transformation of the financial instruments industry and the processes taking place in the capital market, which have initiated a new trend in securities business. The contemporary progress of the global digital securities market is characterized by interactions between rapid technological innovations, changes in investor habits and competition among technology giants. The research subject is supported by the fact that digital securities offering becomes a profitable business model available on blockchain platform, making securities the most interesting financial instruments in the 21st century. The aim of the research is to overview characteristics of digital financial instruments as a consequence of the difference in territorial areas and legislation, as well as how this affects the potential and challenges of development in the capital market. Description method, analysis and synthesis technique, as well as the documents content analysis in the relevant area, were used for the purposes of the research. The result of the research confirms further development of digital securities in a very challenging environment and resources mobilization through alternative funding methods.

Adolescents are considered as a nutritionally vulnerable subgroup because of their alimentary behaviours. Considering that alimentary habits are strongly influenced by knowledge about digestion, an experiment was conducted with aim to determine whether conceptual understanding and functionalization of this knowledge can be improved by the interdisciplinary teaching approach. The experiment encompassed 258 students attending the fourth year of high school. No statistically significant difference in the level of the previously acquired chemistry, biology and physics knowledge concerning digestion between the two groups was determined on the pre-test. Conversely, the students in the experimental group significantly outperformed those in the control group on the post-test that required a deep understanding and the application of knowledge about digestion in solving real-life problems. Therefore, it was concluded that high-school teachers can be advised to apply the interdisciplinary teaching approach in order to improve their students' knowledge about this process.

Background: Prolonged Exposure (PE), a trauma-focused therapy, is one of the most efficacious treatments available for PTSD. However, many people with PTSD do not lose their diagnosis following delivery of PE. The Unified Protocol (UP) for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders is a non-trauma focused treatment that may offer an alternative treatment for PTSD. Methods: This paper describes the study protocol for IMPACT, an assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial that examines the non-inferiority of UP relative to PE for participants who meet DSM-5 criteria for current PTSD. One hundred and twenty adult participants with PTSD will be randomized to receive either 10 × 90-min sessions of UP or PE with a trained provider. The primary outcome is severity of PTSD symptoms assessed by the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5) at post-treatment. Discussion: While evidence-based treatments are available for PTSD, high levels of treatment dropout and non-response require new approaches to be tested. The UP is based on emotion regulation theory and is effective in treating anxiety and depressive disorders, however, there has been limited application to PTSD. This is the first rigorous study comparing UP to PE in a non-inferiority randomized controlled trial and may help improve clinical outcomes for those with PTSD. Trial registration: This trial was prospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, Trial ID (ACTRN12619000543189).

Organic chemistry represents an essential part of everyday life, but previous research indicates that traditional organic chemistry teaching, which focuses on the transmission of academic content, insufficiently promotes the development of pupils’ chemical literacy in this field. Since context-based teaching approach has the potential to improve scientific literacy, in order to compare the effectiveness of the aforementioned teaching approaches in terms of developing elementary school pupils’ chemical literacy in the field of organic chemistry, a pedagogical experiment with parallel groups was conducted. The experiment was organized within the elaboration of the teaching unit Alkanes and it encompassed 148 eighth-grade elementary school pupils (76 pupils in the experimental and 72 pupils in the control group). Through the elaboration of the content about alkanes, pupils develop chemical literacy in regard to the structure and nomenclature of these compounds, their physical and chemical properties and oil and its derivatives as energy sources, as well as environmental pollutants. Upon the elaboration of the abovementioned teaching unit, the experimental group achieved a significantly higher overall percentage of correct answers on the test that checked the development of pupils’ chemical literacy in regard to alkanes on all three levels (knowledge, application and reasoning), which implies that context-based teaching approach could significantly enhance elementary school pupils’ chemical literacy, in the field of organic chemistry.

The COVID-19 crisis had a huge impact on education and became the subject of many scientific studies. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the opinions of professors and students on the quality of teaching and satisfaction with e-learning during the COVID-19 crisis. The aim of the research is to answer the question to what extent professors and students are satisfied with the quality of e-learning in higher education institutions, as well as their expectations in the future. The research was created on the research platform 1KA and conducted in the period from November 12, 2021 to February 12, 2022 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A survey questionnaire was used as a research instrument, which was sent to 192 addresses, 101 publics and 91 private faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and included 132 professors and 202 students. The results of the research showed that the quality of teaching is positively influenced by the satisfaction and level of usefulness of the tools used among professors, but also among students. The results also confirmed that more work experience leads to lower e-learning expectations in the future. The paper presents empirical research that was conducted on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina about the impact of COVID-19 on the quality of e-learning. The scientific contribution of the paper is reflected in the fact that it can be used in research related to the impact of crises on teaching in higher education institutions, as well as potential future emergency situations of crisis and uncertainty that result in new models of teaching that combine classroom and e-teaching.

This study analyses the use of digital banking channels in the European Union and Serbia and the effect of their use on the number of branches. The aim of the study is to identify the banking channels, which explain the differences between these countries and to examine the existence of digital channels effect on the variation in the number of branches. The paper applied several statistical methods of multivariate analysis. Using factor analysis, the main factors were identified in the light of clarifying differences between countries, and the multiple linear regression method examined the influence of two independent variables-digital channels, representative for identified factors, on the dependent variable - number of branches. The research results show that there are significant differences between the examined countries in terms of credit card and direct debit services use. The variable that has a significant effect on reducing the number of branches is direct debit services usage.

The aim of this paper was to compare the effectiveness of the problem-based teaching method with traditional receptive teaching in the field of natural sciences. Bearing in mind the most frequent problems pupils are faced with when learning natural sciences, and that these problems are mainly the consequence of traditional receptive teaching, four research hypotheses have been proposed in the paper: compared to the traditional receptive teaching, problem-based teaching method promotes better understanding of the academic content of natural sciences (H1), a more positive attitude of students toward natural sciences (H2), better self-regulation of the learning of natural sciences (H3), and a better academic achievement of students in the field natural sciences (H4). The academic achievement of students in the field of natural sciences was considered solely as a quantitative aspect of students’ performance, which is why understanding, as one of the levels of qualitative aspect of students’ performance, was considered in a separate hypothesis. In order to verify these hypotheses, meta-analysis was conducted. For the purpose of conducting this meta-analysis, the results obtained from 23 scientific papers were used to calculate corresponding mean values of ES for each of the hypotheses. On the basis of the calculated mean values of ES, all four hypotheses, as well as the great potential of the problem-based method to improve the quality of teaching in the field of natural sciences, have been verified.

Alexithymia, psychological distress, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are highly related constructs. The ongoing debate about the nature and relationship between these constructs is perpetuated by an overreliance on cross-sectional research. We examined the longitudinal interactive relationship between alexithymia, psychological distress, and PTSD. We hypothesised that there is an interactive relationship between the three constructs. Military personnel (N = 1871) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Kessler 10 and a PTSD Checklist (PCL-C) at pre-deployment, post-deployment, and at 3–4 years following the post-deployment assessment. We initially tested whether psychological distress is either a moderator or mediator in the relationship between alexithymia and PTSD across the time points. General psychological distress was a partial mediator of total PTSD severity and hyperarousal symptomology at all three time points. Psychological distress fully mediated re-experiencing and avoidance symptomology at all three time points. Our results suggest that those with alexithymia are at longitudinal risk of developing more severe PTSD symptomology and experiencing hyperarousal irrespective of temporal proximity to traumatic exposure. Further, vulnerability to the emergence of re-experiencing and avoidance symptomology for those with alexithymia is increased when one experiences greater distress. Our results show that alexithymia is a persistent risk factor for PTSD symptomology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of biomolecular techniques to archaeological materials from the Balkans is providing valuable new information on the prehistory of the region. This is especially relevant for the study of the neolithisation process in SE Europe, which gradually affected the rest of the continent. Here, to answer questions regarding diet and subsistence practices in early farming societies in the central Balkans, we combine organic residue analyses of archaeological pottery, taxonomic and isotopic study of domestic animal remains and biomolecular analyses of human dental calculus. The results from the analyses of the lipid residues from pottery suggest that milk was processed in ceramic vessels. Dairy products were shown to be part of the subsistence strategies of the earliest Neolithic communities in the region but were of varying importance in different areas of the Balkan. Conversely, milk proteins were not detected within the dental calculus. The molecular and isotopic identification of meat, dairy, plants and beeswax in the pottery lipids also provided insights into the diversity of diet in these early Neolithic communities, mainly based on terrestrial resources. We also present the first compound-specific radiocarbon dates for the region, obtained directly from absorbed organic residues extracted from pottery, identified as dairy lipids.

BACKGROUND: This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate attitudes and knowledge regarding oral health and infant oral health among pregnant women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study involved 325 pregnant women in the Republic of Croatia who completed an anonymous online questionnaire (Google forms) from January to June 2019. The questionnaire was divided into three parts. The first part contained questions about the demographic data experience about oral health in pregnancy. The second part was related to the knowledge of the relationship between oral health and pregnancy. The third section consisted of questions related to knowledge about the oral health of children at the earliest age. The results were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation analysis, and Chi-square test. RESULTS: The women are mostly informed about oral health in pregnancy from their dentists (53.54%) and least from their general doctors (4%). In pregnancy, gingival bleeding was observed by 52.31% of respondents and tooth mobility by 12.31%. The Chi-square test found that there was a difference in attitude regarding the age at which they should stop breastfeeding between respondents who had their first pregnancy and those who already had children. Only 9.23% of respondents are aware that breastfeeding can cause tooth decay. CONCLUSION: Pregnant women in the Republic of Croatia do not have sufficient knowledge, and they are neither aware of the importance of oral health during pregnancy nor infant oral health.

In this paper the author presented the Semantic Web as a new generation in the evolution of the Web. In contrast to previous generations based on work with people, the third generation of the Web, presented in the paper, is focused on mechanical processing of stored information. Information are being processed at a higher level because Semantic Web is based on giving meaning to information on the Web and it is therefore defined as a plan to achieve related data applications on the Web in a form that creates a consistent logical data network. In the paper the author presented the process of constructing the Semantic Web through the establishment of a new level of interoperability. Due to the importance of the syntactic form of a document and the syntactic content, the languages of the Semantic Web are presented. Due to the importance of Web content categorization, the paper presents dictionaries that cover different areas. Different ontologies have been developed separately and the Semantic Web has brought the need for interoperability. For that reason, this paper is also focused on the languages of the ontologies. In terms of use of the Semantic Web, the author specifically focused on knowledge managing and presented tools for maintaining a poorly structured sources of information.

The paper presents artificial intelligence from the standpoint of clearing the doubts that lie ahead of its contemporary development. For centuries, in the works of great thinkers, there has been the idea of building a machine that will be able to construct a perfectly logical language through rational mechanical processes that would allow the overall opinion to be reduced to a simple calculation and the various discoveries were made as a result of the conducted research. The theses of strong and weak artificial intelligence have been elaborated. The abandonment of the standard Von Neumann's computer architecture and the introduction of artificial neural networks are the path leading to artificial intelligence. The idea of artificial life and doubt in the future development of superintelligence, whose development has created all the essential assumptions, were observed from the point of view according to which human perception is much more than the logical structure of algorithms.

Since high school students tend to perceive organic chemistry as an subject that is difficult to understand, the aim of the research was to examine whether a contextual approach to teaching can improve conceptual understanding and application of knowledge from this chemistry subdiscipline among students of a high school of science and mathematics. For this purpose, a teaching experiment with parallel groups was carried out as part of instruction on the topic of Alcohols. The sample consisted of 163 third grade students at a high school of science and mathematics, with 82 students in the control group and 81 in the experimental group. The initial test, comprising problems similar to those in the textbook, showed that students in both groups had a similar level of prior knowledge about alcohols. However, in the final test, where students were expected to apply their newly acquired knowledge about alcohols to solving everyday problems and to provide a detailed explanation of the problem-solving process, students in the experimental group achieved a significantly higher overall percentage of correct responses and a significantly higher number of correct responses to most problems in the test relative to students in the control group. Since the results of the experiment indicate that a contextual approach to teaching fosters conceptual understanding and application of knowledge in the field of organic chemistry, this research could contribute to improving organic chemistry teaching in high schools of science and mathematics.

This paper presents a pedagogical experiment with parallel groups through which the effectiveness of the cognitive apprenticeship model of dealing with the teaching topic "Carboxylic acids and their derivatives" was compared with the traditional approach to the elaboration of this topic. This experiment featured the participation of 241 students aged 17, attending their third year of grammar school, natural sciences stream. The experimental group consisted of 118 students, whereas the control group was made up of 123 students. Within the framework of the experiment, a pre-test consisting of items that resembled regular textbook items was used as an instrument for checking how balanced the previously acquired knowledge concerning the teaching topic "Carboxylic acids and their derivatives" of the students in the two groups was. A post-test was used as an instrument for comparing the effectiveness of the two approaches, and it mostly consisted of items that required the application of the knowledge concerning the teaching topic "Carboxylic acids and their derivatives" in solving real-life problems. In the pre-test, no statistically significant difference in the overall percentage of correct answers given by the two groups of students was established. In the post-test, the students from the experimental group scored a statistically significant higher percentage of correct answers compared to the students from the control group. On the basis of this, it can be concluded that the applied cognitive apprenticeship approach has the potential to improve the level of students' understanding of the concepts from the topic "Carboxylic acids and their derivatives," as well as the students' ability to apply the knowledge on the examples from real life.

Tax reforms concerning corporate profit are an inevitable phenomenon in the 21st century with the unfair tax competition among countries going rampant. Although not a member of the European Union, Switzerland is affected by these measures, since it is one of the leading economies in the world which profits the most from preferential tax regimes. For the purposes of this study we analyzed the current changes in the tax treatment of corporate profit at all three levels of government in Switzerland which occur due to the Corporate Tax Reform. The paper points to the basic features of the system of corporate taxation in Switzerland in order to understand the changes that followed and the reasons justifying the change in terms of the European Union and the OECD. Accordingly, we propose several key measures that could contribute to the implementation of reforms - for the cantons to accept the international rules or to lower the tax rates on corporate profit to the level of international competitiveness. Aligning the cantonal tax rates has been underway, and in the forthcoming period a referendum is expected to take place with a view to defining further steps in accepting the tax rules. In case that the tax reform III fails, new reforms will be inevitable.

Background: Emotion processing deficits have been identified as a critical transdiagnostic factor that facilitates distress after trauma exposure. Limited skills in identifying and labelling emotional states (i.e. alexithymia) may present on the more automated (less conscious) end of the spectrum of emotional awareness and clarity. Individuals with alexithymia tend to exhibit a disconcordance between subjective experience and autonomic activity (e.g. where high levels of subjective emotional intensity are associated with low physiological arousal), which may exacerbate distress. Although there is a robust link between alexithymia and trauma exposure, no work to date has explored whether alexithymia is associated with emotional response disconcordance among trauma-exposed adults. Method: Using a validated trauma script paradigm, the present study explored the impact of alexithymia on emotion response concordance [skin conductance (Galvanic Skin Response, GSR) and Total Mood Disturbance (TMD)] among 74 trauma-exposed adults recruited via a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment clinic and student research programme. Results: Unlike posttraumatic symptom severity, age, sex, participant type and mood (which showed no effect on emotion response concordance), alexithymia was associated with heightened emotion response disconcordance between GSR and TMD [ F (1, 37) = 8.93, p = 0.006], with low GSR being associated with high TMD. Observed effects of the trauma script were entirely accounted for by the interaction with alexithymia, such that those with alexithymia showed a negligible association between subjective and physiological states. Conclusion: This finding is paramount as it shows that a large proportion of trauma-exposed adults have a divergent emotion engagement profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]