Chemical abstracts

The United Nations presented a global action plan of an integrated nature for sustainable development, and the role of cities is seen as central in efforts to implement these goals. Integrating city performance evaluation methods containing sustainability indicators is becoming increasingly popular. The United Nations and other international organizations and researchers analyze urban sustainability in the context of different countries. However, holistic assessment methods that can show if and to what extent a city is sustainable, measure its progress, and provide information for policy development are only just emerging. Our Synergies and Trade-offs Recommendation Method for Sustainable Cities and Communities (the STRICT method) proposes that country and city metrics are connected in multifaceted ways through tradeoffs and synergies. As a result of this analysis, city models and maps were created, and digital evidence-based recommendations were provided to urban and national policymakers based on the findings of the analysis. A 1% improvement in country success individual metrics led to a synergistic effect in 189 out of 219 city indicators (86.3%). The STRICT method suggests a notable impact of a country’s social, cultural, and political success on the city indicators.

The links between subjective health, psychological wellbeing, and psychological capital in adolescence are under-researched, even though a lot of studies investigated links between health and wellbeing in adult population. The purpose of this research was to examine psychological wellbeing and psychological capital in groups of subjectively healthy and unhealthy adolescents and identify significant associations. The survey has revealed that, in general, the subjective health relates to psychological capital and psychological wellbeing in adolescent sample. The structural model on associations between the study variables demonstrated some significant links between self-reported quantity of illnesses, psychological wellbeing, and psychological capital (χ2 = 101.4728; DF=24; RMSEA=0.0649 [0.0522- 0.0782]; CFI=0.9145; NFI=0.8933; TLI=0.8997; p=0.000). However, the limitation of this study was that the information on health was self-reported and not checked in a clinical report and the sample size was relatively small. In the future research, it would be essential to compare information on subjective and objective health status and evaluate psychological capital and wellbeing by objective health-illness groups.

The process of companies undertaking adaptation in the face of changing conditions which have been influenced by factors such as globalisation, technological changes, environmental changes, competition, political decisions, worker mobility, population structure, and so on, is one of the major challenges of modern corporate governance. Changes in a company are inevitable, but they do not always directly correlate with the employee’s sense of security, including whether the employee feels safe about their workplace, in-come, of future roles in the company in the face of potential changes. There is an inverse relationship between the employee’s sense of security and their time spent with the company. One way of managing this which can help to ensure a sense of security for employees within the company is to directly involve them in the process of implementing changes in the organisation. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the principal aspects of employee engagement in change management processes and to gain an increased level of understanding in terms of the implementation of change at the organisational level by involving employees. Research methods: a systematic and comparative analysis of concepts and methods which have been published in the available scientific literature, statistical processing, an instrumental case study, interviews, surveys, and a content analysis of strategic documents; followed by modelling. The theoretical contribution of the paper demonstrates construction of methodology quidded on the Emergent perspective and new theoretical insights on professional discourse. Practical input shows that employee involvement in change processes is directly related to the speed of strategic change in the company

The vegetation in karst regions (KR) is crucial to maintain fragile local ecosystems. Therefore, it is critical to understand the factors that affect their vitality. The objective of this work is to study global KR vegetation dynamics between 1986 and 2015 and the natural and anthropogenic factors that affect it. The results showed a significantly (p < 0.05) positive greening trend (greening and browning trends were estimated to be 31.90% and 14.29%, respectively). The recuperation of KR vegetation was mainly observed at high latitudes and equatorial regions, where there is less human influence. Nevertheless, the growth of vegetation in some middle and low latitudes areas was a consequence of the human intervention. Vegetation degradation in KR was especially observed at middle latitudes due to the harsh environment and human impact. No significant correlation was observed between karst vegetation stability, the variation of annual average temperature and precipitation accumulated. Globally, karst vegetation dynamics depend more on precipitation than in temperature. In some areas, vegetation can recover gradually, even under extreme conditions and without human intervention. In areas with high population density, vegetation recuperation is mainly as a consequence of restoring programs.

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration biopsy with cytologic analysis is an initial step in diagnostic of thyroid nodules. Unfortunately, up to 30% of biopsies are indeterminate and diagnostic surgery is required. The aim of this study was to estimate the diagnostic value of BRAF V600E mutation status combined with cytomorphological features for diagnosis of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules. METHODS: A prospective study analyzed patients who had ultrasound suspicious thyroid nodules, underwent fine needle aspiration and cytological examination, and were classified according to the Bethesda system. Patients from indeterminate diagnostic categories were examined for BRAF V600E mutation and 22 cytomorphological features, and underwent thyroid surgery. A binary logistic regression model was used to evaluate the diagnostic utility. RESULTS: A total of 219 patients met study criteria. After histological examination, 77 (35.2%) patients were diagnosed with PTC and 142 (64.8%) with benign nodular thyroid disease. According to logistic regression model, significant features for PTC diagnosis were: liquid colloid consistency, papillary structures, eosinophilic colloid bodies, and BRAF V600E mutation. Risk groups classified by this model have sensitivity of 80.5% (95% CI: 69.9 to 88.7), specificity of 99.3% (95% CI: 96.1 to 100), positive predictive value of 98.4% (95% CI: 89.8 to 99.8), negative predictive value of 90.4% (95% CI: 85.7 to 93.7), and accuracy of 92.7% (95% CI: 88.4 to 95.8) for PTC diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of BRAF V600E mutation status combined with cytomorphological features for diagnosis of PTC in cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules can significantly improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce the number of diagnostic operations (calculator available at www.ptc-calc.we2host.lt).

International activities of firms contribute to environmental socio-economic development and have a positive influence on prosperity of countries. The novelty of this study is to extend prevailing theory on the performance measurement of internationalized firms by suggesting a hybrid decision-making model based on interval type 2 fuzzy sets for the Baltic states. The integrated method is defined as the interval type-2 (IT2) decision making trial and evaluation laboratory qualitative flexible multiple criteria method (DEMATEL-QUALIFLEX). IT2 DEMATEL is used for weighting each criterion of internationalized firms and IT2 QUALIFLEX is applied for ranking the Baltic states, respectively. Within this context, six different criteria are defined for ranking the internationalized firms of the Baltic states. The ranking of all three countries enable us to conclude that Estonia demonstrates the best results of internationalized firms. Meanwhile, Latvia has the worst performance of internationalized firms. The findings are useful for decision makers responsible for supportive policies focused on the research and development (R&D) and internationalization of firms. The implications for managers lie in the awareness of necessary conditions for successful internationalization. The study extends prevailing knowledge on the performance measurement of internationalized firms and provides findings on multinational companies (MNCs) in the Baltic states’ context.

Creation of a sustainable agricultural sector involves boosting the cooperation activities as these contribute to the societal and economic development of the farms, farmers and rural societies. This paper contributes to the literature on the analysis of the drivers and obstacles of cooperation development in agriculture. The case of Lithuania is considered as the cooperation activities are lagging behind the European Union (EU) practice here. Specifically, analysis of the public support measures and the expert survey are carried out to analyse the effectiveness of the public policy measures as represented in the relevant legal acts. The experts involve policy makers, farmers’ organisations and academia, which are the major stakeholder groups in Lithuania. The results indicate the effectiveness of the measures linked to capacity building (in the sense of human capital) requires improvement, whereas those related to financial support and promotion of the farmers’ organisations are much better perceived. Thus, public support measures are available to promote cooperation in agriculture, yet the legal system of Lithuania still requires improvement in accommodating effective agricultural cooperatives.

Objective: The impact of maternal psychosocial stress on young children’s mental difficulties is unclear. This study investigated the joint effects of the socioeconomic status and parent-child relationships on emotional and behavioral difficulties in preschool children. Methods: The case-control study included 1416 mothers and their 4–6 year-old children pairs, living in Kaunas city, Lithuania. The parent-child relationships were measured using the Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction subscale. Children’s mental health difficulties were assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. We used logistic regression models to indicate the strength of the associations. Results: Lower socioeconomic status women more often than higher ones reported pathological mother-child relations. Low education level was associated with statistically significant increase adjusted odds ratios for emotional symptoms and total behavioral difficulties. With reference to the group of better-educated mothers and normal mother-child relations, low education and pathological mother-child relations statistically significantly increased the risk of total difficulties in 4–6 year-old children; the adjusted odds ratios were 2.45; 95% CI 1.51–3.99. Conclusions: Pathological mother-child relations strengthened the effect of lower education on the increased risk of emotional and behavioral difficulties in preschool-age children. Measures oriented towards health behavior and psychosocial difficulties management may decrease children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties.

The article investigates the characteristics and forms of cooperation between criminal investigation officers* and forensic laboratory specialists in pre-trial proceedings, as well as practical problems in such cooperation. Recently there have been a number of particularly heated debates about the relationship between determining a person possessing special knowledge and his/her status in pre-trial proceedings. Other discussed aspects include cooperation between entities involved in pre-trial proceedings in international contexts. A less intensive (albeit equally important) discussion relates to the form and characteristics of cooperation between criminal investigation officers on the one hand and specialists and experts on the other in investigating criminal acts. Bearing in mind the high practical importance and the existing differences in scholarly approaches to these issues, the current study concentrates on the forms and content of cooperation between law enforcement officers and specialists (experts) from forensic laboratories, as well as on problems resulting from such cooperation and directions for improvement.

This study investigated the effects of the proximity to city parks and the influence of residential greenness on children's emotional and behavioral problems. This cross-sectional study included 1,468 mothers of children (ages 4 to 6) who were residents of the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. The mothers and their children were enrolled in the FP7 PHENOTYPE project study. The mothers reported on their parenting stress and their children's mental health. Residential greenness was characterized as an average of the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in a 300 m buffer around each home address, and the proximity to city parks was defined as the distance from the subject's residence to the nearest park. Linear regression models were used to investigate the association among the residence distances from city parks, greenness and children's mental health problems. Farther residential distance from city parks was associated with worse mental health (except for the emotional problems subscale) in children whose mothers had a lower education level. More residential greenness was associated with worse mental health (more conditional problems and less prosocial behavior) in children whose mothers had a higher education level. These relationships have important implications for the prevention of emotional and behavioral problems in children.