INTRODUCTION Prevalence study is simple, cheap and fast method that provides information about hospital-acquired infections (HAI). OBJECTIVE To assess the HAI prevalence at different surgical departments in the Clinical Center of Banjaluka. METHOD A point prevalence study design was used. All patients (N = 174) hospitalized on July, 1st, 1999 were included in the study. The study was performed by following the CDC guidelines. All patients with clinically manifested infections on the day of study in all surgical departments were recorded. infections of more than one site in the same patient were considered separate infections. RESULTS The overall prevalence of patients with HAI was 16.1% (28/174; 95%CI = 10.4-21.6) and the overall HAI prevalence was 18.4% (32/174). Surgical-site infections were the most prevalent (6.3%) followed by skin/soft tissue infections (4.6%) and urinary tract infections (4.0%). More than two thirds (87.5%) of HAI were microbiologically documented. The most commonly isolated microorganisms were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (29.7%), Enterobacter spp. (24.3%) and Staphylococcus aureus (16.2%). CONCLUSION This point prevalence study clearly showed the magnitude of HAI problem at different surgical departments in the Clinical Center of Banjaluka, the most prevalent anatomic localizations of HAI, and the most common causes.

Sir, Idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis (IRF) is a collagen vascular disease of unknown aetiology. It is characterized by chronic, non-specific retroperitoneal inflammation, which may cause ureteric obstruction. Many authors believe that it is a type of immune disorder [1]. Bosnia and Herzegovina is known as a region where Hanta virus infection has been endemic for >50 years [2]. A case of IRF associated with haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) has not been reported up to now. A 44-year-old, previously healthy man was hospitalized with acute renal failure. He was febrile 2 days before admission, had dull abdominal pain, decreased urine output, shortness of breath, diarrhoea and arterial hypertension (190/120mmHg). Blood tests showed metabolic acidosis (HCO3: 15.9mmol/l) and increased C-reactive protein (11.26mg/l), potassium (7.9mmol/l), serum creatinine (884 mmol/l), blood urea nitrogen (17.6mmol/l) and globulins (49.1 g/l) and decreased haemoglobin (7.4mmol/l). Urinanalysis showed proteinuria and leukocyturia. Urine culture was negative. Indirect immunofluorescene tests for Hanta viruses were positive for Pummala virus. Ultrasound showed acute renal parenchymal lesions with bilateral hydronephrosis, grades I–II, and widening of the wall of the abdominal aorta. The presence of a great number of rodents in the forest where the patient was working has been reported by the epidemiology service. After supportive, antihypertensive and diuretic therapy, the patient’s renal function stabilized, with serum creatinine at 187 mmol/l and potassium at 4.5mmol/l. Intravenous urography showed a functioning left kidney, with a suspected retrocaval ureter on the right side and dilation of the channels of the right kidney. A computed tomography contrast scan showed a solid retroperitoneal mass, in the form of thick plate of high density, extending from the level of the renal hilum down caudally to the bifurcation of the aorta (compatible with retroperitoneal fibrosis). A double-J stent was applied and steroids and androgens were administered (pronison 60mg plus tamoxifen 20mg 2). After 3 months, the stents were removed and medications were continued. After 6 months, the patient’s total DTPA clearance was 61.1ml/min (11.8ml/min in the left kidney and 49.3ml/min in the right kidney), measured by technetium marked by diethylaminoacid. Steroids and androgens were withdrawn after 12 months. The patient has normal blood pressure and stable renal function, with serum creatinine at 125mmol/l. It remains a mystery whether HFRS triggered an immune abnormality and acceleration of the symptoms of a latent IRF or whether the two diseases merely coincided. Adequate treatment of HFRS was certainly the reason that renal function recovered and the progression of the disorder caused by the chronic disease, IRF, was hampered.

Experimental evidence exists that especially the heterogeneity in contrast enhancement as evaluated by dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is a predictive feature for treatment outcome in a variety of tumor types. In this study it is investigated whether texture descriptors derived from DCE-MRI based heuristic feature maps are suitable to quantify the heterogeneity in contrast uptake. An automated analysis method is proposed that for each voxel first partitions the signal intensity curve into different temporal regions indicating different stages of enhancement. Within these regions, heuristic features describing the contrast dynamics are estimated. The corresponding features maps are used as the basis for texture analysis, based on cooccurrence matrices, to assess tumor contrast uptake heterogeneity. The method has been applied in pre- and post treatment DCE-MRI data in ten patients with soft tissue sarcomas who underwent isolated limb perfusion. The correspondence between texture measures and the heterogeneity in contrast uptake as visually assessed by a radiologist has been evaluated, and the ability of the texture measures to discriminate between two treatment outcome classes has been assessed. The preliminary results suggest that some of the proposed texture measures are suitable to quantify the heterogeneity in contrast uptake in tumor tissue

Aminopropyl amyloses with various degrees of substitution (DS) were prepared and investigated with respect to their surface modification properties. Poly(acrylic acid) was grafted to plasma-activated PVDF films, and the functional amylose was bound via amide linkage formation. Layer formation was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Contact angle measurements and surface MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry indicated a hydrophilic surface and minimization of protein adsorption.

To minimize QoS degradations during nonstationary packet loadings, predictive rate schedulers adapt the operation according to anticipated packet arrival rates deduced via specified estimation algorithm. Existing predictive rate schedulers are developed under the assumption of perfect estimation, which may not be possible in future CDMA-based cellular networks characterized with highly nonstationary and bursty traffic. Additional shortcoming of existing rate schedulers is the coupling of delay and bandwidth, that is, close interdependence of delay and bandwidth (rate), whereby controlling one is accomplished solely by changing the other. In order to mitigate for the arrival rate estimation errors and delay-bandwidth coupling, this paper presents the feedback-enhanced target-tracking weighted fair queuing (FT-WFQ) rate scheduler. It is an adaptive rate scheduler over multiclass CDMA systems with predictive adaptation control to adapt to nonstationary loadings; and feedback-enhanced reactive adaptation control to counteract arrival rate estimation errors. When the predictive adaptation control is not able to maintain long-term delay targets, feedback information will trigger reactive adaptation control. The objective of FT-WFQ scheduler is to minimize deviations from delay targets subject to maximum throughput utilization. Analytical and simulation results indicate that FT-WFQ is able to substantially reduce degradations caused by arrival rate estimation errors and to minimize delay degradations during nonstationary loading conditions.

Deux reliques tertiaires, Pinus heldreichii et P. nigra, sont considerees comme especes taxonomiquement tres proches. Leur distribution geographique est tres discontinue, se chevauchant dans quelques localites des Balkans. La repartition des regions heterochromatiques (AT-, GC- riche et heterochromatine constitutive nonspecifique) et l'activite des organisateurs nucleolaires (NORs) sont analysees par fluorochrome banding et coloration au nitrate d'argent respectivement. Les donnees morphometriques du caryotype de P. heldreichii sont presentees ici pour la premiere fois. La distribution des bandes GC-riches est particulierement specifique, P. heldreichii possede 12 et P. nigra 24 bandes. En comparaison avec d'autres especes de la subsection Pinus, P. heldreichii presente un chromomycin banding particulier. Les bandes AT-riches sont moins specifiques et leur localisation est similaire aux autres pins. La coloration au DAPI, effectuee apres la denaturation/renaturation de l'ADN, revele des differences importantes en nombre et position des bandes entre deux especes. Le nombre des constrictions secondaires (SCs), des NORs et des nucleoles differe egalement entre P. heldreichii(10) et P. nigra (12). Nos resultats montrent une differentiation nette au niveau chromosomique entre ces deux especes et ouvrent la discussion sur un changement eventuel de subsection pour P. heldreichii.