Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the presence of antimicrobial resistance / susceptibility strains of Escherichia coli in inpatients and outpatients. Materials and methods: It is a retrospective study carried out at the Department of Microbiology, Parasitology and Virology Faculty of Medicine, University of Sarajevo. In cooperation with the Microbiological laboratory of the Cantonal Hospital Zenica and the Microbiological laboratory of the General Hospital Tesanj, 3863 urine samples were processed in the period from March 1st to March 31st 2016. Results: Our study showed that E. coli had the highest antimicrobial resistance to trimethoprim / sulfamethoxazole (38.61%), followed by amoxicillin / clavulanic acid (19.62%), ciprofloxacin (9.49%), gentamicin (8.86%), cephalexin (8.23%), nitrofurantoin (8.23%), cefuroxime (7.52%), ceftazidime (6.33%), cefuroxime (89.87%), amikacin (4.43%). Conclusions: The isolated strains of E. coli showed the highest resistance to trimethoprim / sulfamethoxazole and amoxicillin / clavulanic acid. The isolated strains of E. coli showed the greatest susceptibility to amikacin and ceftazidime. Gender distribution of positive E. coli isolates showed statistically significant differences in favor of females.

AIM To assess the health status among dentists in Croatia regarding the symptoms of musculoskeletal, dermatological, sight, hearing and neurological disorders. METHODS The anonymous online survey was conducted among 506 Croatian dentists. RESULTS It was found that over 78.18% of the surveyed dentists experienced work related pain in upper back, 76.97% of them in lower back. Work-related skin problems were reported by 29.29% of dentists. Vision problems were reported by 46.87% and hearing problems by 19.03% of participants. Neurological disorders were reported by 15.76% of dentists. CONCLUSION This study is the first to report on the overall health status of Croatian dentists and, unfortunately, it showed undesirable results. Numerous health hazards, increased professional requirements and limited ergonomics in the work environment of Croatian dental practitioners cause various health disorders, and the prevalence of occupational diseases is very high.

It is hard to imagine everyday life in recent times without access to a wide spectrum of various services and applications delivered via the Web, especially in the mobile environment. Additionally, it is important today to satisfy end user needs, i.e., improve their Quality of Experience (QoE), taking into account that many factors, characteristic for different categories of Web, influence user’s mobile Web QoE. Therefore, this paper provides the categorization of the Web and focuses on the identification of the most and least influential factors in general according to examined user opinions in the context of browsing Web sites via mobile devices, and all for the successful management of QoE in mobile Web context.

This paper describes the complete process of design, development and implementation of a specifically developed pressure transducer, installed as a part of a measurement system developed for experimental testing and simulation of high voltage circuit breaker model. The synthesis of the custom-made pressure transducer - from the initial idea to the final implementation is presented in the paper, alongside with a brief survey of competitive commercial measurement solutions. The experimental results suggest that the developed pressure transducer completely fulfils the specified technical requirements. Moreover, the proposed transducer has many additional advantages over the existing commercial solutions.

Uncertainty is one of the most important factors contributing to the complexity of the power system operation and management. This paper presents some of the most important uncertainty modelling techniques and compares their advantages and disadvantages. In particular, this paper focuses on identification, classification and comparison of uncertainty modelling approaches used in power systems, highlighting the Distributed Generation (DG) allocation problem. The main objective of this paper is to identify the sources of uncertainty in DG allocation problem, review the most important uncertainty modelling methods and propose the appropriate matching approach between the sources of uncertainty and modelling methods

Object: The incidence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-related complications after intradural spinal tumor (IST) surgery is high and reported in up to 18% of patients. However, no efficient way to prevent those complications has been reported so far. Treating these complications may require prolonged bed rest, re-exploration, external lumbar drain, use of antibiotics, and possible precipitation of other complications. To alleviate the risk of CSF-related complications, we prospectively adopted the intraoperative use of autologous fat grafting after IST surgery. Methods: This is a perspective analysis of 37 cases (out of 40 cases series) that a prospective use of abdominal fat autograft was applied during dural closure. After the tumor was resected and the dura closed, we used the Valsalva maneuver to ensure watertight closure. CSF leak was prevented with the enforcement of suture with a fat autograft as necessary. In addition a thin layer of fat tissue was then placed over the dura to obliterate any dead space. Fibrin glue was then applied over the graft. Filling the dead space with the fat graft prevented a low-pressure space in which CSF could pool and form a pseudomeningocele. Results: After adopting the fat autograft technique, we did not observe any post-surgery CSF-related complications in any of these patients. Conclusions: The prospective use of autologous fat grafting can ensure watertight dural closure and obliterate the dead space created during surgical exposure and bone removal. This technique significantly reduces, and may completely eliminate, postoperative CSF-related complications in patients with ISTs.

A new low potential electrochemical sensor for determination of L-cysteine based on carbon electrodes modified with Ru(III) Schiff base complex, multi-walled carbon nanotubes and Nafion is presented. Cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and flow injection analysis were employed. Measurements were carried out using Britton-Robinson buffer (pH 5.50). The results showed that addition of multi-walled carbon nanotubes to Ru(III) complex modified glassy carbon and screen printed carbon electrodes gives increased current signals at the potential where oxidation of L-cysteine occurs. Flow injection amperometric measurements were performed at the operating potential +0.15 V vs. Ag/AgCl (3 M KCl) electrode and showed fast electric current response for L-cysteine oxidation, demonstrating good reproducibility and stability. The sensor has a detection limit of 0.11 mg L -1 and a dynamic range of 50-500 mg L -1 . The repeatability was calculated as 2.8 %. New sensor was used for the determination of L-cysteine in pharmaceutical products.

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of antibiotic consumption on development of antimicrobial resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in University Clinical Center of Sarajevo. In our retrospective study Acinetobacter baumannii isolated in period from July 1st 2009 to December 31st 2012. Isolates were detected from different clinical samples including urine, wound swab, blood, bronchial aspirate and other samples which were collected from patients situated on various hospital wards. Clinical isolates belonged to one per patient in a given period of time. Results: Antimicrobial resistance was interpreted according to CLSI breakpoints. Consumption of antibiotics was analyzed according to recommendations of the ESAC-Net and current Acinetobacter baumannii classification. Pearson’s correlation showed a positive correlation between gentamicin consumption and emerging of resistance (p = 0.023). Conclusion: Increase in the antimicrobial use was followed with an increase in resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii isolates. Monitoring of antibiotic resistance and consumption is of a great importance in order to reduce the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistant organisms in the health care settings.

Idiopathic scoliosis, defined as a three-dimensional spine and trunk deformity, which appears in otherwise healthy subjects, exhibits complex relations with various forms of personal well-being and psychopathology. Most research studies have documented a higher proportion of psychological disturbances (e.g., self-criticism, negative body image, low self-esteem) and mental disorders (e.g., anxiety and depressive disorders, personality disorders) among idiopathc scoliosis patients compared to healthy controls. In addition, there are some reports, although more systematic research is warranted, on the role of mental health and personality traits in relation to the adherence to conservative treatment. Given the increasing role of surgical treatment in the management of scoliosis, as well as several reports on negative psychological outcomes of such interventions, there is a growing need for ongoing screening and mental health care in this population. It seems this also holds true for non-operative treatments, particularly bracing therapy. One should keep in mind that these scoliosis-psychopathology relations are deduced from a limited number of empirical studies, usually conducted on small sample sizes, suggesting the need for further large-scale investigations, preferrably those with longitudinal research designs. Understanding the complex interplay between personality/psychopathology and spinal deformities within the framework of personalized mind-body medicine, should help clinicians tailor more individualized and specific treatments and predict therapeutic outcomes in this clinical population.

Objective: Objective of this work is to determine influence of palliative care on the quality of life in patients with lung cancer. Subjects and Methods: Our study group included 40 patients, consecutively selected, which is determined by symptomatic treatment and hospitalized at the Department of Palliative Care of University Clinical Center Tuzla. The control group consisted of 40 patients who had a diagnosis of lung cancer treated at home by an authorized ambulance Health Center Tuzla. Tests in both groups were carried out using the test SF-36 scale for assessing quality of life in period of two weeks. Two-stage test was performed, initially, immediately after disease was diagnosed, and two weeks later. Results: All life quality parameters (general, physical and emotional) were better in second test, in patients who were situated in the department of palliative care (study group) (p<0.0001). In the area of physical health (physical function, physical limitations, pain, general health), in patients who have resided in the department of palliative care (study group), showed a statistically significant improvement in all the aspects (p<0.0001). In the study patients all aspects of mental health were statistically significantly improved after two weeks being in department (p<0.0001). Conclusion: Two weeks treatment of patients with lung cancer in the Department of Palliative Care significantly improve all general aspects of quality of life.

Digital printing has matured and it is now present in daily production. This is true for both the large format inkjet printing and digital commercial printing (with toner based and increasingly with ink jet technique). In the graphic arts industry in particular the latter use case shows tremendous growth figures where small and medium run lengths are taken over increasingly from the offset market (Kraushaar, 2010). As digital printing industry grows every day a lot of work has been done in improving and developing new technologies and products. This increased growth demands higher level of quality assessment in order to be able to compare different products and technologies and evaluate them (Pedersen et al., 2011). Most production digital printing processes depend on the use of certified paper to perform to their best capacity. Any adjustments that need to be made to the actual press require the intervention of technical support personnel other than the press operator (Chung & Rees, 2007). Print quality is very important in each printing technology, and also for digital printing (Rilovski et al., 2012). A common way for analyzing the print quality is to quantitatively assess image color and tone value reproduction using corresponding measuring device. This way of analyzing print quality is easy, since tone and color are easily perceptible, but they are not enough for determining print quality (Dhopade, 2009; Kiurski & Oros, 2012). Several experiments proved that print quality is not a monotonic function of hue, saturation and brightness (Fedorovskaya, Ridder & Blommaert, 1997; Pedersen et al., 2009). Quantitative print quality assessment depends on a number of quality attributes (Pedersen et al., 2011; Rilovski et al., 2012). There are several of them such as contrast, sharpness, macro-uniformity, etc., which are not associated with tone and color but have considerable influence on print quality. They are directly connected with line and dot quality, which are structural elements of any image (Dhopade, 2009). So far many researches have been done that confirmed the importance of different quality attributes, but there is no overall agreement which of them are most important (Pedersen et al., 2011; Rilovski et al., 2012). One of the reason is multidimensionality and complexity of image quality (Pedersen et al., 2011).

This paper investigates the performance of the BCH encoder and decoder for different error-correcting capabilities. The focus is on BCH codes of length 255. The motivation for this research is a project where data symbols of this length are transmitted over an error-prone wireless channel. The paper presents a mathematical introduction into encoding for cyclic codes and decoding of the BCH code. The code was implemented in both software and hardware and the performance and cost of both implementations were measured for different code parameters.