Due to the factors that affect the results of work on a daily basis, higher education institutions, through their quality assurance systems, or their planning, must assess risks. In doing so, they must take into account all issues of the internal and external context as well as the needs and expectations of all stakeholders in higher education. The paper explains in an appropriate way the concept of risk as well as all the elements that determine it and their classification in the field of higher education. Subsequently, a possible approach to risk management is discussed, with an emphasis on clarifying the principles and the risk management process itself. Finally, the basics of practical application in risk identification, analysis, evaluation and treatment are outlined.

Conflicts between different interests are inevitable in every business organization. Therefore, it is not surprising that the number and intensity of conflicts is sometimes very high. Conflict resolution is a skill without which managers can hardly succeed in their business. The subject of research in this paper is conflict management from a technical and economic point of view. The paper defines and analyzes the notion of leadership, that is, elements and dimensions of leadership, the notion of leader, and theoretical approaches to leadership. In addition to the above, the concept of conflict, more specifically its type, levels of conflict, consequences and causes, and techniques of conflict resolution have been defined and analyzed. An online survey (based on the LinkedIn Business Social Network) was conducted to determine how individuals in a production organization respond and resolve conflicts as well as the results of the same. Based on theoretical scientific approach, the conducted research and the analysis of the results, conclusions and recommendations are given, as well as key questions for future research.

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The need for a simple, customised electric vehicle (EV) has inspired the research of the possibility to build a simple EV tailored for the specific needs of the buyer. This paper is focused on the concept of an EV with no conventional control mechanism. In this paper, a research of user needs, vehicle dynamics, vehicle aerodynamics, type of drive and batteries was carried out. EV aerodynamics characteristics were simulated by using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. The control system was designed in correlations with the maximal safe velocity and the radius of EV turning on a circular path. The stability of the EV, concerning the vehicle turning over and wheels slipping while driving in the curves, was the main concern of this paper. The steering wheel and brake pad were replaced with a control stick. Using the Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis, key parts of the construction were constructed.

The article clarifies the importance of maintenance in the exploitation of a particular medical device from the aspect of maintaining its availability, reliability and overall functionality. Particularly emphasized is the role of the preventive method or procedures that have a preventive character before the problems arise in the work. Through an analysis of the most common malfunctions and causes that occur during the exploitation, a basis for objective defining and proposing principles has been created – preventive maintenance with special emphasis on preventive maintenance according to an established condition. The article also shows a numerical way of calculating the periodicity of conducting preventive examinations on a particular device.

One of the ways to improve the performance of centrifugal pumps, proposed and experimentally validated by our research, is the method of creating so-called coherent structures, vortices and turbulence in the peripheral area of the centrifugal stage by adding a vortex rim to the back side of centrifugal rotor. A new construction of the pump, so called centrifugal vortex pump (CV), combines the good sides of these two types of pumps: high head of the vortex pump and high efficiency of the centrifugal pump. In addition, centrifugal pumps deliver higher flow rates with lower pressures, vortex pumps deliver higher pressures but with lower flow rates. For centrifugal vortex pumps, the vortex blades are located at the rear of the centrifugal rotor. The outer diameter of the vortex rim (VR) is smaller than the outer diameter of the centrifugal rotor (CR). The vortex rim induces vorticity to a portion of the flow that has passed through the centrifugal rotor. This vortexed flow is then reunited with the rest of the flow that has not been pulled down by vortex rotor. The vortex energy of that additional stream transfers some of its kinetic energy to the main stream. This added kinetic energy is converted to a pressure that accumulates the pressure exerted by the centrifugal rotor, and thus the vortex rim improves the overall pump performance. An intense process of gas dispersion occurs in the vortex region, which increases the stability of the pump when pumping a mixture of liquids and gases. The process of energy conversion in a centrifugal vortex pump, i.e., flow visualisation of mixing streams from a centrifugal rotor and a vortex rotor, and the quantization and superpositions have been shown in this paper.

Monitoring, protection and control of the electrical power system require the design and implementation of specific applications that are based on analytical methods for the processing of synchronized measurements. Therefore, it is necessary to select the adequate type of mathematical analysis that best suits the requirements of a particular application. This paper describes analytical methods used for the processing of synchronized measured electrical quantities for detection and analysis of the variety of oscillations. The oscillatory phenomena of active power and frequency as a case study of one disturbance in the power system are analyzed. The results of processing the actual synchronized measurements for that case study are presented afterwards. Different data processing methods (spectral analysis methods) are compared, and finally, a recommendation for appropriate methods for processing synchronized measurements in application for recognition, processing and alarming of oscillations of active power is given.

Ever increasing challenges in the areas of risk management have led to a need for a risk management approach which deals not only with threat prevention but also adaption, absorption and recovery from adverse events. This has led to the rise of the concept of resilience analysis and management, which, unlike risk assessment and management focuses on the overall system under analysis rather than its individual components. Therefore, both the civilian and military sector have, over the past decade, emphasized the need to clarify the concept of resilience management as well as to differentiate it from related terms such as risk management. This article aims to build upon the existing literature and provide a comparison of the risk and resilience approaches which offer ways to analyse and manage these concepts.