Aim To explore and elucidate women's knowledge of and willingness to take part in organ donation, and to explore if their opinions were changed by coming to Sweden. Methods The study was designed as a qualitative study using data from interviews with women from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia and Kosovo. The inclusion criteria were women who were immigrants in Sweden and have lived in Sweden for more than 10 years. Five groups including forty-five women were invited to participate in the study and 39 agreed. The women were aged 29 to 73 years (mean 52.5 years). Results Regarding knowledge and information about organ donation, most women found it very important to be able to talk about such things. However, the knowledge and information about organ donation of almost all the women was at a very low level. None of the women changed their opinion on the organ donation and attitudes from their countries of origin. All women firmly emphasized and explained that by coming to another state they do not become a different person and retain all values they had and with which were born in home country. Conclusion It is important to study how to find new ways to communicate and work with minorities and vulnerable groups in order to discuss organ donation with all those who could be potential donors in the Swedish health care system.

Aim To assess the relationship between the clinical sign of limited hip abduction and developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). Methods A research was conducted on 450 newborns at the Neonatal Unit at the Clinic of Gynaecology and Obstetrics and the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Clinic of the University Clinical Centre, Tuzla, between 30th August 2011 and 30th April 2012. Clinical (degree of hip abduction) and ultrasound examination of all newborns' hips were performed using the Graf method on their first day of life. Results Clinical sign of limited hip abduction showed significant predictive value for DDH. There were 67 (14.7%) newborns with the clinical sign of limited hip abduction, of which 26 (5.7%) were on the left hip, 11 (2.4%) on the right hip and 30 (6.6%) on both hips. Limited hip abduction had a positive predictive value (PPV) of 40.3% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 80.4% for DDH. Conclusion Limited hip abduction, especially unilateral, is a useful and important clinical sign of DDH. Doctors, who perform the first examination of the child after birth, would have to pay attention to this clinical sign. Newborns with this clinical sign would have to go to an ultrasound examination of the hips for further diagnosis.

Aim To assess the prognostic value of lactate level for mortality in patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) and Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) I-III and its independence of gas-analysis parameters and acid-base status. Methods This prospective observational study was conducted at the University Clinical Hospital Mostar from 2013 to 2017. On the first day after PE diagnosis, 1.5 mL of arterial blood was collected from 103 patients with PE. Partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood, partial pressure of carbon dioxide in arterial blood, blood pH value, concentration of bicarbonates in arterial blood (HCO3-), base deficit, and oxygen saturation were analyzed. Lactate levels were assessed using blood samples taken from the cubital vein. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the predictive value of gas-analysis variables, lactate level, PESI score, age, and sex for in-hospital death due to PE. Results The mortality in the group of PE patients was 19.1% (18 of 103 patients). Lactate level was an independent predictor of mortality (P = 0.002, odds ratio 0.06). HCO3- was also found to be a significant predictor (P = 0.022, odds ratio 2.4). Lactates were independent of other variables. Other gas-analysis parameters were not significant predictors of mortality. Conclusion In PE patients at low-intermediate risk of mortality (PESI I-III), lactate level was associated with a short-term mortality, independently of other gas-analytic parameters. Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine level of evidence: 2.

Several association studies focusing on FTO gene polymorphisms have been published in the past years; however, the association between FTO -related conditions and FTO gene variants remains unexplained. Population genetics and association studies of different populations provide a valuable tool for further research. Thus, the aim of this systematic review is to summarize current knowledge on the FTO SNP rs9939609, and its association with presumably related conditions. The study included original research articles collected from PubMed and ResearchGate databases that were published in the period between 2007 and November 2017, and that provide information on rs9939609 mutant allele frequency and its probable association with any condition suspected of being related to the mutant allele. Genotype data was extracted and analyzed, and missing data was obtained from secondary sources. Short summaries of relevant studies from primary sources are organized in an overview table. The results of the systematic review suggest that mutant allele A is the most prevalent in European populations and least frequent on the Far East. In addition, it has been concluded that allele A is a good tool for the prediction of an increased risk of higher-than-normal BMI in a person carrying it, as well as that allele A should be further analyzed as a possible risk marker for type 2 diabetes mellitus and polycystic ovary syndrome development.

Abstract The wood industries in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina (BiH) and Macedonia have a long tradition of producing a wide range of products. BiH and Macedonia have similar forest sectors and both countries have experienced similar problems in the manufacturing, sale and use of wood-based products in recent years due to the global financial crisis and resulting national economic challenges. Despite having a long and prosperous history, over the past two decades, the wood products sectors in these four countries have faced a steady decline in profitability, the ability to add value through downstream manufacturing, and overall competitiveness. Engineered wood products (EWPs) are structural building materials that have been used since the early 1980s as replacements for, or in conjunction with, concrete and steel. In this study, we compare architect attitudes, awareness and preferences regarding the use of EWPs between these four countries. The study is based on a sample of 373 architects using on-line surveys. Results suggest that there is a positive perception regarding the use of wood in general in all countries, with the majority of respondents believing that wood use will increase in the future. However, specific to EWPs, differences were found in familiarity and knowledge of potential applications in timber-based construction. Results provide indicators of knowledge gaps between respondents and, conversely, where awareness and willingness to use EWPs exist. These findings can have implications for market opportunities, identifying barriers to EWPs adoption, and content for workshops, seminars, and other outreach mechanisms for architects.

Using global data on aggregate stock markets, this paper finds that the capital asset pricing model fares much better than suggested previously. At shorter time horizons, our results also show that the positive risk-reward relation can collapse during times of high volatility. Compared to other countries, we retrieve evidence of lower systematic risks across frontier equity portfolios. We find that countries characterized by higher levels of openness, exchange rate volatility, and larger economic size are exposed to higher systematic covariances with the world stock market. Conversely, we obtain an inverse link between international reserves and systematic risks in national equity.

The paper aims to evaluate the role of faecal coliforms in assessment of water quality. The study was conducted on the Neretva River in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The sampling was performed bimonthly, over 12 months at seven selected sites. APHA (1995) methods were used. The raw data of temperature, pH, conductivity, oxygen saturation, nitrogen, total phosphorus, and faecal coliforms were transformed into unitless subindices on a scale of 0 to 100 (Ridanovic et al., 2012). NWQI was calculated as a harmonic mean of subindices. Application of NWQI as indicator of water quality was demonstrated through spatial analysis of water quality. Results show a significant decrease (>50%) of water quality. Linear regression was used to assess which parameter has the greatest influence on NWQI value. Results suggest that all tested parametres are strongly connected to NWQI (nitrogen, R 2 =0.7455422), (total phosphorus, R 2 =0.887803), (oxygen saturation R 2 =0.696964), (pH, R 2 =0.595705). However, NWQI value was the most significantly affected by faecal coliforms (R 2 =0.9788). Subindex values for conductivity and temperature were 100, hence their connection to NWQI cannot be analysed by linear regression. Results show how much NWQI changes with a change in one or more subindices, as it assumes a causal relationship between them.

The Tomašica grave-site near Prijedor in the north of Bosnia is reported to be the largest primary mass grave discovered thus far relating to the 1992-95 war. A total of 275 complete bodies and 125 body parts were exhumed from it in 2013. Post mortem examinations of the victims showed that nearly all had died from gunshot injuries but an additional striking feature was the degree of preservation of many of the bodies, even 21 years on, with skin, soft tissues and internal organs still present in abundance and gross structures clearly identifiable. Histology was performed on 68 samples of soft tissue from a total 13 bodies, on both skin and internal organs, and the degree of preservation was assessed in terms of the ability to recognize microscopic structure. Further comparison was made with samples taken a month or so later (56 tissue samples from 9 bodies, all but one different from the first group), after the bodies had been covered in salt as a means of general preservation. Generally, at a microscopic level, skin and subcutaneous tissues were better preserved than internal organs, while tissues sampled at the time of autopsy were better preserved than those sampled weeks later.

The well-known major drawbacks of the Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM), namely, the transmitter versus receiver Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO), and the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) of the transmitted OFDM signal, may degrade the error performance, by causing Intercarrier Interference (ICI), as well as in-band distortion and adjacent channel interference, respectively. Moreover, in spite of the utmost care given to CFO estimation and compensation in OFDM wireless systems, such as wireless local networks or the mobile radio systems of the fourth generation, e.g., the Long-Term Evolution (LTE), still some residual CFO remains. With this regard, though so far the CFO and the PAPR have been treated independently, in this paper, we develop an Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) based analytical model for the CFO-induced constellation symbol phase distortion, which essentially reveals that the maximal CFO-caused squared phase deviation is linear with the instantaneous (per-OFDM-symbol) PAPR. This implies that any PAPR reduction technique, such as simple clipping or coding, indirectly suppresses the CFO-induced phase deviation, too. The analytically achieved results and conclusions are tested and successfully verified by conducted Monte Carlo simulations.