INTRODUCTION Hospital infections (HIs), which are frequently associated with hospital treatment, increase morbidity, mortality and treatment costs. The aim of this study was to establish the incidence of HIs in a neurological intensive care unit (nICU), and to determine the most prevalent causative agents and risk factors for HIs. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional study with nested case-control design was conducted between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2010 at an 18-bed neurological intensive care unit at the Clinical Center Kragujevac, Serbia. RESULTS In total, 537 patients were enrolled in the study, with 6,549 patient-days. There were 89 patients with 101 HIs. The incidence of patients with HIs was 16.57%, and incidence of HIs was 18.81%, while density of HIs was 15.42 per 1,000 patient-days. The most frequent anatomical sites of HIs were urinary tract (73.27%), blood (10.89%), and skin and soft tissues (10.89%). The following risk factors were identified: co-morbidity (OR=3.9; 95% CI=1.9-7.9), surgical intervention in the last 30 days (OR=5.6; 95% CI=1.5-20.4), urinary bladder catheterization longer than seven days (OR=3.8; 95% CI=1.8-8.2), value of Glasgow coma scale ≤ 9 (OR=3.7; 95% CI=1-6.9), and longer hospital stay (OR=1.1; 95% CI=1.1-1.2). CONCLUSIONS Hospitalization in an nICU bears high risk of HIs, especially of urinary tract infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria, in patients with longer hospital stay or co-morbidities, and in those who have had surgical interventions or prolonged use of a urinary bladder catheter. Special attention should be paid to these patients to prevent HIs.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of pediatric CT in 40 less-resourced countries and to determine the level of appropriateness in CT use. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data on the increase in the number of CT examinations during 2007 and 2009 and appropriate use of CT examinations were collected, using standard forms, from 146 CT facilities at 126 hospitals. RESULTS The lowest frequency of pediatric CT examinations in 2009 was in European facilities (4.3%), and frequencies in Asia (12.2%) and Africa (7.8%) were twice as high. Head CT is the most common CT examination in children, amounting to nearly 75% of all pediatric CT examinations. Although regulations in many countries assign radiologists with the main responsibility of deciding whether a radiologic examination should be performed, in fact, radiologists alone were responsible for only 6.3% of situations. Written referral guidelines for imaging were not available in almost one half of the CT facilities. Appropriateness criteria for CT examinations in children did not always follow guidelines set by agencies, in particular, for patients with accidental head trauma, infants with congenital torticollis, children with possible ventriculoperitoneal shunt malfunction, and young children (< 5 years old) with acute sinusitis. In about one third of situations, nonavailability of previous images and records on previously received patient doses have the potential to lead to unnecessary examinations and radiation doses. CONCLUSION With increasing use of CT in children and a lack of use of appropriateness criteria, there is a strong need to implement guidelines to avoid unnecessary radiation doses to children.

Large scale genetic association meta-analyses showed that neurocan (NCAN) gene polymorphism rs1064395 is susceptibility locus for bipolar disorder. These studies also included patients with bipolar disorder originated from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Followed by theory of shared genetic elements between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia susceptibility, other studies explored several genetic factors with schizophrenia vulnerability as well. In this work, authors investigated the association between previously confirmed bipolar disorder genetic risk factor- neurocan with schizophrenia in a population sample of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ethical aspects of this research were assessed by Ethics Committee of Clinical Center University of Sarajevo. Blood samples for DNA extraction were taken from the total of 86 patients and healthy individuals who previously signed informed consent. Genotyping for rs 1064395 was done using direct sequencing method. A case-control analysis of common genetic polymorphism within neurocan gene and schizophrenia status in a consecutively sampled patient cohort have been done using Fisher-exact test with odds-ratio calculation. No statistically significant allele and genotype association with disease status was found (p>0.05). Our finding supports the fact that large-scale genetic association studies approach need to be employed when detecting the variants with small additive effect in phenotypes with complex ethiology.

The major purpose of this paper is to present a way of solving problems through so-called visual planning and programming using object-oriented concepts. This paper describes the process of UML modeling for solving the traveling salesman problem using one of the metaheuristic-genetic algorithms. The analysis and problem solving in this way has many advantages just because it provides a clear definition of requirements and specific plan that we will later use to create specific applications. This is a good way to resolve because the UML describes the source code, models help to visualize the system as it is or what it should be and allow you to determine the structure and behavior of the system. Static and dynamic diagrams implemented in developing tools for modeling, as well as a description of specific applications and testing are mentioned. With this approach we describe modeling tool that can be used in the development of specific solutions and a way of establishing explicit links between concepts and execution code.

To evaluate cytotoxicity of experimental conventional and resin modified glass-ionomer cements on UMR-106 osteoblast cell cultures and cell cultures of NIH(3)T(3) mouse fibroblasts specimens were prepared for every experimental material and divided into: group 1.Conventional glass-ionomer cements: GC Fuji IX GP Fast, GC Fuji Triage and Ketac Silver; group 2. Resin modified glass-ionomer cements: GC Fuji II LC, GC Fuji Plus and Vitrebond; group 3. Positive control was presented by specimens of composite Vit-l-ecence® and negative control-group 4. was presented by α-minimum essential medium for UMR-106 - osteoblast-like cells and Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium for NIH(3)T(3) mouse fibroblast cells. Both cell cultures were exposed to 10% of eluate of each single specimen of each experimental material. Experimental dishes were incubated for 24 h. Cell metabolism was evaluated using methyltetrazolium assay. Kruskal-Wallis test and Tukey-Kramer post hoc test for the materials evaluated on NIH(3)T(3) mouse fibroblast cells, as well as UMR-106 osteoblast-like cells showed significantly more cytotoxicity of RMGICs, predominantly Vitrebond to both GICs and composite- Vit-l-ecence®.The lowest influence on cell's metabolism on UMR-106 osteoblas-like cells was shown by Ketac Silver and the lowest influence on cell's metabolism on NIH(3)T(3) mouse fibroblast cells was shown by Fuji IX GP Fast. Statistical evaluation of sensitivity of cell lines UMR-106 osteoblast-like cells and NIH(3)T(3) mouse fibroblast cells, using Mann-Whitney test, showed that NIH(3)T(3) mouse fibroblast cells were more sensitive for the evaluation of cytotoxicity of dental materials.