Article history: Received 3 June 2018 Received in revised form 15 August 2018 Accepted 20 August 2018 The development of ultra-hard cutting tool materials such as cubic boron nitride and ceramics exhibiting excellent wear resistance, chemical stability and hardness at high temperatures have enabled much higher cutting speeds and dry machining. In order to achieve high performance cutting, it is necessary to know the true properties of the cutting tool materials in real operating conditions as well as mechanisms of their failure. The aim of this paper is to determine the properties of certain types of polycrystalline advanced ceramics at a range of loading rates, including dynamics involved in these processes. In order to determine the dynamic fracture toughness of two grades of the material, a crack closure integral method was applied, showing some discrepancy to the static values at high loading rates.

Samples of white and red wines produced in two different wine-growing regions, coastal (Dalmatia) and continental (Hrvatsko zagorje) of Croatia, were analysed for biogenic amines content. Biogenic amines content was determined, and its concentration levels were associated with the geographical origin of the wine. Due to its high sensitivity, HPLC method with ultraviolet detector was used, including the derivatisation step with dansyl chloride. The method was applied to detect and quantify 11 biogenic amines in 48 red and white wines. It was found that both Dalmatian red and white wines are characterised by tryptamine (0.23–1.22 mg L−1), putrescine (0.41–7.5 mg L−1) and ethanolamine (2.87–24.32 mg L−1). White wines from the Hrvatsko zagorje region are characterised by content of isopentylamine (0.31–1.47 mg L−1), putrescine (0.27–1.49 mg L−1) and ethanolamine (3.80–17.96 mg L−1). In contrast to white wines from the Hrvatsko zagorje region, in the red wines, all biogenic amines except ethylamine, were found and equally presented.

This paper presents the performance analysis of five full-reference objective quality assessment measures on compressed high-resolution video sequences from two publicly available video datasets. Quantitative measures that were accepted by the international research community used in the performance analysis - the correlation coefficient of ranks and the linear correlation coefficient between subjective and objective quality scores. The performance analysis is carried out globally - the level of complete datasets and on subsets of sequences with common characteristics (compression type or source sequence). Three types of compressed video content were analyzed - H.265 and its predecessors H.264 and MPEG-2. The correlation between subjective and objective quality scores is analyzed in different scales (resolutions) of the video signal. From the analysis of the results, very important conclusions on the objective quality assessment of the compressed video signals were derived, as well as the directions for further work.

INTRODUCTION West Nile virus (WNV) immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies have been shown to persist for up to 500 days in certain patients. To evaluate the usefulness of immunoglobulin G (IgG) avidity assessment in the diagnosis of WNV infection, we analyzed 54 WNV IgM- and/or IgG-positive serum samples from 39 patients with neuroinvasive disease and 15 asymptomatic cases tested during a seroprevalence investigation. METHODS Serological tests (WNV IgM/IgG antibody detection, IgG avidity) were performed using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. RESULTS WNV IgM antibodies were detected in 47 (87%) samples. Acute/recent WNV infection was confirmed based on low/borderline avidity index (AI) in 44 IgM-positive samples (93.6%). In three IgM-positive samples (6.4%), high IgG AIs were detected, thus indicating persisting IgM antibodies from previous infections. All IgM-negative samples showed high AIs. Patients with WNV neuroinvasive disease tested within 30 days showed low AIs. In six patients tested 34-50 days after disease onset, AI was borderline (42%-60%), suggesting earlier WNV IgG maturation. Samples with the highest IgM values were associated with the lowest AIs (Spearman's rho coefficient -0.767, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that IgG avidity differentiates current/recent WNV infection from persistent IgM seropositivity from the previous WNV transmission season both in patients with WNV neuroinvasive disease and in asymptomatic persons. A strong negative correlation between IgM antibody levels and AI indicates that in cases with very high IgM levels, determination of IgG avidity may not be necessary. As many patients showed rapid avidity maturation, low IgG avidity is indicative of WNV infection within the previous month.

This work was financially supported by: Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007457 (CONSTRUCT - Institute of R&D in Structures and Construction) and by project POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-007633 (ISISE), funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI), and by national funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia. FCT and FEDER (COMPETE2020) are also acknowledged for the funding of the research project IntegraCrete PTDC/ECMEST/1056/2014 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016841). The financial support of COST Action TU1404 through its several networking instruments is also gratefully acknowledged.

The LabVIEW FPGA platform is based on graphical programming approach, which makes easy the FPGA programming and the I/O interfacing. The LabVIEW FPGA significantly improves the design productivity and helps to reduce the time to market. On the other hand, traditional FPGA platform is helpful to get an efficient/optimized design by providing control over each bit using HDL programming languages. This work utilized traditional as well as LabVIEW FPGA platforms to get an optimized high speed design of AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). The AES is considered to be a secure and reliable cryptographic algorithm that is used worldwide to provide encryption services, which hide the information during communication over untrusted networks, like Internet. Here, AES core is proposed to secure the communication between ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) and control station in a marine environment; but this core can be fit in any other high speed electronic communications. This work provides encryption of 128-bytes, 256-bytes and 512-bytes set of inputs (individually and simultaneously) using a 128-bit key. In case of simultaneous implementation, all the above mentioned set of inputs is encrypted in parallel. This simultaneous implementation is resulted in throughput of Gbps range.

Objective. To revise the current juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) classification criteria with an evidence-based approach, using clinical and routine laboratory measures available worldwide, to identify homogeneous clinical groups and to distinguish those forms of chronic arthritis typically seen only in children from the childhood counterpart of adult diseases. Methods. The overall project consists of 4 steps. This work represents Step 1, a Delphi Web-based consensus and Step 2, an international nominal group technique (NGT) consensus conference for the new provisional Pediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organization JIA classification criteria. A future large data collection of at least 1000 new-onset JIA patients (Step 3) followed by analysis and NGT consensus (Step 4) will provide data for the evidence-based validation of the JIA classification criteria. Results. In Step 1, three Delphi rounds of interactions were implemented to revise the 7 ILAR JIA categories. In Step 2, forty-seven questions with electronic voting were implemented to derive the new proposed criteria. Four disorders were proposed: (a) systemic JIA; (b) rheumatoid factor–positive JIA; (c) enthesitis/spondylitis-related JIA; and (d) early-onset antinuclear antibody–positive JIA. The other forms were gathered under the term “others.” These will be analyzed during the prospective data collection using a list of descriptors to see whether the clustering of some of them could identify homogeneous entities. Conclusion. An international consensus was reached to identify different proposed homogeneous chronic disorders that fall under the historical term JIA. These preliminary criteria will be formally validated with a dedicated project.

* Correspondence: sabina.seric-haracic@vfs.unsa.ba