This paper presents development of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for prediction of the size of nanoparticles (NP) and microspore surface area (MSA). Developed neural network architecture has the following three inputs: the concentration of the biodegradable polymer in the organic phase, surfactant concentration in the aqueous phase and the homogenizing pressure. Two-layer feedforward network with a sigmoid transfer function in the hidden layer and a linear transfer function in the output layer is trained, using Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm. For training of this network, as well as for subsequent validation, 36 samples were used. From 36 samples which were used for subsequent validation in this ANN, 80,5% of them had highest accuracy while 19,5% of output data had insignificant differences comparing to experimental values.

Cervical cancer represents a serious health problem affecting women worldwide especially in developing countries due to low socioeconomic status, inadequate health-care infrastructure, weaknesses in education on this particular issue and lack of effective screening programmes. The primary aim of this study was to assess alternative screening method for the improvement of cervical cancer prevention in conditions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), which could be applicable in other developing countries as well. The study was conducted on 101 subjects who provided their self-sampled vaginal swabs and/or cervical specimens collected by their gynecologists. Universal Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) primer set optimized to detect a wide range of HPV types was used for HPV genotyping from obtained swab samples in multiplex PCR. Amplicons were analyzed in agarose gel and Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer – a platform based on microfluid technology. Inter-rater agreement kappa (MedCalc2) was used to assess concordance between results of cervical and vaginal sample analysis. Out of 39 subjects who provided their vaginal and cervical samples, results of HPV detection mismatched in 10% of the cases. Inter-rater agreement showed good strength of coincidence between the results of cervical and vaginal sample analysis (kappa=0,748, CI=95 %). We presented an alternative PCR method for the detection of HPV based on vaginal self sampling which is affordable, informative, simple and applicable with high coverage level of defined targeted population and potentially significant in the given cultural and socioeconomic context.

Soy sauce is worldwide popular condiment of Asian origin. With the advent of GM soybean production, soy sauce drew the interest of food safety control. Samples collected for inspection are generally of industrial grade soy sauce type, which is produced from hydrolyzed soybean and grain. Following the failure to perform RealTime PCR based GMO screening on a number of submitted samples we tested our screening system on soy sauce produced following traditional method based on fermentation. Four batches of soy sauce were produced and DNA extracted. DNA concentration ranged from 32,68 to 65,36 ng/μl. Amplification of taxon specific target was successful with rather high Ct ( > 30). Promoter P-35S sequence was not detected, but T-NOS was detected in three samples with values reaching or exceeding LOD of the method. The results show that it is possible to detect transgenic elements in traditionally produced soy sauce while DNA extraction from industrial grade soy sauce is not possible.

The focus of this study was microsatellite diversity of crossbred horses raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples of 20 individuals (KBA group – 7 individuals, crosses between Bosnian and Herzegovinian mountain horse and Arabian horse; KBR group – 9 individuals, crosses between Bosnian and Herzegovinian mountain and Belgian horses, crosses between Bosnian and Herzegovinian mountain horses and Holstein, crosses between Bosnian and Herzegovinian mountain and Lipizzaner horses and KBN group – 4 individuals, crosses between Bosnian and Herzegovinian mountain horse with an unknown origin of the other parent). The samples were profiled using 17 microsatellite markers. This method consisted of multiplex PCR procedure and generated reasonable amplification across all the loci. All samples were genotyped successfully. Considering all the observed parameters, VHL20 locus showed the highest microsatellite diversity. Locus HMS7 was the least variable in KBR group, while HMS1 locus was the least diverse in KBN group. The highest microsatellite diversity in KBA group was found at AHT5 locus while HTG6 locus was the least diverse. Obtained results suggest that the investigated populations of crossbred horses from Bosnia and Herzegovina are not affected by substantial loss of genetic diversity, as indicated by the presence of reasonably high level of genetic variation. An increase in the inbreeding coefficient and sufficient heterogenity in KBN group indicate occurrence of consanguineous mating. The present research contributes to the knowledge of current status of genetic structure of the investigated crossbred horses.

The aim of this study was to determine the values of micronuclei (MN) and structural chromosomal aberrations (CA) in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 200 healthy participants of both genders from general population of FBH and of the age in both genders. Frequency distribution of CTAs and CSAs between male and female groups showed predominance of CTAs over CSAs, independently of gender. The results of this study will be incorporated into reference data base for comparative research in future.

Atmospheric pollution is among the largest anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystem. In numerous studies it was observed that plants, especially those that grow in urban areas, are heavily influenced by different pollutants and their survival is correlated with structural and metabolic adaptation to stressful environmental conditions. Primary objective of this study was to determine the index of tolerance to air pollution (APTI) of plantain (Plantago major), on two locations in Zenica. The results indicated that index of tolerance to air pollution of P. major, APTI, is higher in individuals sampled from the contaminated site, than those in the control area.

The entrepreneurial involvement of educational institutions at the elementary and the secondary educational levels has not been systematically analyzed in the existing body of literature, although the decentralization and autonomy of educational institutions have been emphasized in educational policies since the 1980s. This study provides an empirical analysis of the entrepreneurial orientation, as related to the schools in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina and their principals. The influence of this orientation is analyzed from the perspectives of principals’ personal job satisfaction, perceived contribution to the society and the perception of the social role/influence of principalship. The empirical findings show that the entrepreneurial orientation of schools and their principals in Croatia and B&H are closely inter-related. More enterprising principals are also more satisfied with their jobs, and they feel to be contributing to the society more. However, the same does not apply to their perceived social standing/status, which could be attributed to their intrinsic motivation, but such a conclusion needs to be verified by further research. The results of this study show that the entrepreneurial orientation(s) of schools and school principals should be considered as useful descriptors of individual and institutional behaviour in the educational systems of South-East Europe.

In these mini-proceedings we review the results of the workshop `Impact of $B\to\mu^+\mu^-$ on New Physics Searches' that took place at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) on the 18th-19th December 2017.

We investigate how changes in network structure can lead to pathological oscillations similar to those observed in epileptic brain. Specifically, we conduct a bifurcation analysis of a network of two Jansen-Rit neural mass models, representing two cortical regions, to investigate different aspects of its behavior with respect to changes in the input and interconnection gains. The bifurcation diagrams, along with simulated EEG time series, exhibit diverse behaviors when varying the input, coupling strength, and network structure. We show that this simple network of neural mass models can generate various oscillatory activities, including delta wave activity, which has not been previously reported through analysis of a single Jansen-Rit neural mass model. Our analysis shows that spike-wave discharges can occur in a cortical region as a result of input changes in the other region, which may have important implications for epilepsy treatment. The bifurcation analysis is related to clinical data in two case studies.

This paper presents a new algorithm for distribution system reconstruction planning based on Mamdani type fuzzy inference and BellmanZadeh multi criteria decision making method. The proposed algorithm takes system attributes as inputs (number of customers served by renewed infrastructure, energy losses, power demand and cost of investment) and returns crisp output values which are used as planning criteria. The aim of this paper is to provide a logical decision making framework which can be used to model, evaluate, and rank projects according to required criteria. The proposed model is flexible and can be extended to include additional planning criteria. The proposed method is tested on a realistic distribution system to demonstrate its relevance. It is expected that this paper will make a contribution toward more effective management of power distribution network planning process and that it will be used by planning engineers in practical problems.

Contamination of agricultural soils can present a signifi cant risk to human health through oral ingestion, particle inhalation, and dermal contact. Th e aims of this research were to determinate the concentrations, distribution and human health risk of various heavy metals in soil samples from three agricultural areas of South Herzegovina. A total number of 32 soil samples were collected and analyzed for Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Cobalt (Co), Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), and Zinc (Zn). Th e Hazard Index (HI) was used to assess the human health risk of the study area. For the adult and children population, the HI value for dermal exposure to Cobalt (Co) was greater than one (HI>1), and non-cancerogenic eff ects are therefore considered as signifi cant for human health. Our fi ndings impose consideration of taking risk management measures in order to reduce risk for human health from Cobalt (Co).