Introduction: In this paper author discussed about preparing and submitting manuscripts - scientific, research, professional papers, reviews and case reports. Author described it from the Editor’s perspective, and specially talked about ethical aspects of authorship, conflict of interest, copyright, plagiarism and duplicate publication from the point of view of his experiences as Editor-in-Chief of several biomedical journals and Chief of Task Force of European Federation of Medical Informatics journals and member of Task Force of European Cardiology Society journals. The scientific process relies on trust and credibility. The scientific community demands high ethical standards to conduct biomedical research and to publish scientific contents. During the last decade, disclosure of conflicts of interest (COI ), (also called competing loyalties, competing interests or dual commitments), has been considered as a key element to guarantee the credibility of the scientific process. Biases in design, analysis and interpretation of studies may arise when authors or sponsors have vested interests. Therefore, COI should be made clear to the readers to facilitate their own judgment and interpretation of their relevance and potential implications. Results and Discussion: Authors are responsible to fully disclose potential COI . In October 2009 the ICMJE proposed an electronic “uniform” format for COI disclosure. Four main areas were addressed: authors´ associations with entities that supported the submitted manuscript (indefinite time frame), associations with commercial entities with potential interest in the general area of the manuscript (time frame 36 months), financial association of their spouse and children and, finally, non-financial associations potentially relevant to the submitted manuscript. Consumers of medical scholarship expect a reliable system of disclosure in which journals and authors make disclosures appropriately and consistently. There is a stigma surrounding the reporting of COI that should be progressively overcome. Further actions are required to increase awareness of the importance of COI disclosure and to promote policies aimed to enhance transparency in biomedical research. In this article author discuss about important ethical dilemmas in preparing, writing and publishing of scientific manuscripts in biomedical journals.

In Tallinn (Estonia) from 08-10 of June 2012 was held scientific conference “Editing in the digital world”. As part of this scientific event was organized celebration of the thirtieth EASE anniversary and meetings of the General Assembly and EASE Council. At the session of the General Assembly of EASE were appointed new members of the Council for the period 2012-2015 in which I was also appointed for that period. (Figure ​(Figure11). Figure 1 Welcoming speach in Town hall, Tallinn, 08.06. 2012. The scientific part of the conference was held in the conference halls of Tallinn University of Technology from 07 to 11 June in a form of plenary lectures for all participants, workshops on specific scientific content and work sessions on specific thematic content. Plenary sessions were held by: Professor Yuri Engelbrcht, vice-president of the Estonian Academy of Sciences (National Journals in an international context), Deborah Kahn (Open access and digital models), Alan J. Cann (Social Media Tools and Academic Publishing) and Linus Svensson (The editorial office). (Figure ​(Figure22). Figure 2 From the session of EASE Conference in Tallinn, Estonia, 08-10. 2012. Working part had eight separate thematic sessions: a) From National to International: Benefits of the digital era for regional journals (3 presentations); b) Data Publishing (3 presentations): c) Science translation, editing and reliability (4 presentations); d) Improving peer review management reporting: creating powerful internal reports and meaningful editorial board presentation (1 Presentation of forum type with 3 integrated presentations); f) Local assistance of scientists and institutes by journal editors (6 presentations); g) Publication bias (3 presentations) and h) Bibliometrics (3 presentations). A special session was a poster session where I presented two posters: “The European Federation of Medical Informatics: History and Journal Review” and “Conflict of Interest Polices and Disclosure Requirements among European Society of Cardiology National Cardiovascular Journals”. Both posters are presented as results of two projects that are led by a) From National to International: Benefits of the digital era for regional journals (3 presentations); b) Data Publishing (3 presentations): c) Science translation, editing and reliability (4 presentations); d) Improving peer review management reporting: creating powerful internal reports and meaningful editorial board presentation (1 Presentation of forum type with 3 integrated presentations); f) Local assistance of scientists and institutes by journal editors (6 presentations); g) Publication bias (3 presentations) and h) Bibliometrics (3 presentations). A special session was a poster session where I presented two posters: “The European Federation of Medical Informatics: History and Journal Review” and “Conflict of Interest Polices and Disclosure Requirements among European Society of Cardiology National Cardiovascular Journals”. Both posters are presented as results of two projects that are led by the editors of EFMI and ESC scientific association that have their own Task Force (EFMI - 11 editors and 44 editors of the ESC, the first lead by me and second by professor Fernando Alfonso from Spain). (Figure ​(Figure33). Figure 3 Poster “The European Federation of Medical Informatics: History and Journal Review Workshops were devoted to educational topics on how to prepare, write, publish papers in scientific journals (Writing a scientific paper and getting published; readability: 10 Strategies for improving flow in translated or non-English speakers, text, Effective Computer-aided translation software: MemoQ, How to be successful editor; bels examination), which attracted the attention of a substantial number of those that are not very skilled in this scientific work, but also those who already have a good experience. Besides the working part, some scientific associations presented their activities, e.g. International Association of Veterinary Editors, which had its own separate workshop and a special presentation of the European Federation of Medical Informatics Journals and European Society of Cardiology journals, which I have presented on a separate exibition booth. (Figure ​(Figure44). Figure 4 Council meeting of EASE in Tallinn, 10. 06. 2012. The first session of 7 newly elected members of the Council passed is in good working atmosphere - with analysis of past activities of members in the last session and creation of new division of responsibilities to members with a lot of suggestions and proposals to improve the work of EASE and promote strategies and activities of this important association in the future. Determined are the activities carriers for certain thematic task that will coordinate the activities of EASE in the individual EASE member countries. (Figure ​(Figure55). Figure 5 Dinner of members of EASE Council in Tallinn, 10.06.2012. The social part of the program has left a special impression on the participants of the congress in Tallinn, a city of exceptional historical past, with such beauty and the rich traditional legacy of all those who have during the last centuries conquered and left something of their own, which remained were not destroyed. That made this city so impressive that UNESCO has declared it as their heritage. Most impressive was the reception in the old town hall in which was tailored the fate of the city and its inhabitants in recent centuries. There was a ceremony and celebration held on the thirtieth anniversary of EASE that for all members of this association and to those who participated in this scientific conference will remain in everlasting memory. Cake, prepared in honor of the 30th anniversary, beside the current president, Joan Marsh, was cut by some former presidents of this association.

OBJETIVO: Avaliar a funcao pulmonar e forca da musculatura respiratoria no periodo pos-operatorio e verificar o efeito do treinamento muscular inspiratorio sobre as medidas de desempenho da musculatura respiratoria em pacientes submetidos a revascularizacao do miocardio. METODOS: Estudo randomizado, incluindo 47 pacientes submetidos a revascularizacao do miocardio com circulacao extracorporea. Os pacientes foram divididos em grupo controle (GC), 24 pacientes, e grupo estudo (GE) 23 pacientes, com idade media de 66,33 ± 10,20 anos e 61,83 ± 8,61 anos, respectivamente. O GE foi submetido a fisioterapia convencional e ao treinamento muscular inspiratorio com threshold® IMT e o GC a fisioterapia convencional. Foram comparadas as pressoes respiratorias maximas (Pimax e Pemax), volume corrente (VC), capacidade vital (CV) e pico de fluxo expiratorio (Peak Flow) no pre-operatorio (Pre-OP), 1o e 3o dias de pos-operatorio (PO1) e (PO3). RESULTADOS: Observou-se reducao significativa em todas as variaveis mensuradas no PO1, quando comparadas ao pre-operatorio, nos dois grupos estudados, Pimax (P<0,0001), Pemax (P<0,0001), VC: GE (P<0,0004) e GC: (P< 0,0001) e CV GE: (P<0,0001) e GC: (P<0,0001) e peak flow (P<0,0001). No PO3, o GE apresentou em comparacao ao GC, maior valor de CV, GE 1230,4 ± 477,86 ml vs. GC 919,17 ± 394,47 ml (P= 0,0222) e VC GE 608,09 ± 178,24 ml vs. GC 506,96 ± 168,31 ml (P=0,0490). CONCLUSAO: Pacientes submetidos a cirurgia cardiaca sofrem reducao da CV e da forca muscular respiratoria apos a cirurgia. O treinamento muscular realizado foi eficaz em recuperar o VC e a CV no PO3, no grupo treinado.

Objective: Determine diagnostic power and intercorrelation between bladder outlet obstruction number (BOON) and intravesical prostatic protrusion (IPP ) as non-invasive predictors of infravesical obstruction in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic enlargement. Material and methods: Prospective study during 2009-2010 analyzed data of 110 patients with proven benign prostatic enlargement. Prostate volume and IPP were determined by transabdominal ultrasound, and patients underwent complete urodynamic studies (UDS). BOON was calculated using the formula: prostate volume (cc)-3 x Qmax (ml/s)-0.2 x mean voided volume (ml). Results: There is a statistically significant correlation between the values of IPP and BOON (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient rho=0.48, p=0.0001). BOON is a more sensitive (sensitivity 82.4%, specificity 66.1%), while IPP is a more specific factor (sensitivity 58.8%, specificity 81.4%) in the group-wise prediction of bladder outlet obstruction (BOO). Positive predictive value in the diagnosis of obstruction increases at the individual level combining the cut-off values for BOON>-30, with IPP >10 mm (PP V 86.8%). Owing to a good correlation of IPP with different definitions of urodynamic obstruction, IPP was included in the BOON formula instead of prostate volume. This number was arbitrarily called BOON2. The combination of IPP >10 mm and cut-off value for BOON2 >-50 showed that 88.6% of the patients were accurately classified in the zone of obstruction (mean IPP 14.9 mm), while BOON2<-50 carried a high NPV. Conclusion: The combination of cut-off values for BOON and IPP increases test accuracy according to BOO at the individual level, thus facilitating clinical decision making regarding diagnostics and optimal choice of therapy in patients with BPE. Owing to its good correlation with obstruction determinants, IPP can be included in the formula for BOON instead of prostate volume.

This work reports about the preliminary results and ongoing research based upon profiling collaborative learning groups of persons within the social micro-blogging platforms like Twitter1 that share potentially common interests on special topic. Hereby the focus is held on spontaneously initiated collaborative learning in Social Media and detection of collaborative learning groups based upon their communication dynamics. Research questions targeted to be answered are: are there any useful data mining algorithms to fulfill the task of pre-selection and clustering of users in social networks, how good do they perform, and what are the metrics that could be used for detection and evaluation in the realm of this task. Basic approach presented here uses as preamble hypothesis that users and their interests in Social Networks can be identified through content generated by them and content they consume. Special focus is held on topic oriented approach as least common bounding point. Those should be also the basic criteria used to detect and outline the learning groups. The aim of this work is to deliver first scientific pre-work for successfully implementation of recommender systems using social network metrics and content features of social network users for the purposes of better learning group communication and information consumption.

This paper aims to analyze economies which are affected by the European debt crisis most by examining the effects on the Western Balkans countries reflected by Foreign direct investments flows of selected countries, trade performance indicators of Western Balkans and remittances from abroad. The analysis comprises the following countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The data set used in the analysis has been extracted from the following databases: UNCTAD, World bank, Eurostat, World Trade Organization from National statistics.Structure of the paper is given as follows: Section 2 deals with new economic trends and new developments in the countries of Western Balkans from the moment of their independence. Section 3 discusses the recent developments in the foreign trade for the last decades between European Union-27 and Western Balkan also it describes the main specific features of the overall trade performance indicators of Western Balkan for last two decades. Section 4 compares and analyses the implications of debt crisis in European Union-27 on the economies of Western Balkans during current debt crisis.Our findings show that the debt crisis in European Union-27 has indeed affected the countries of Western Balkans to a particular degree through financial and trade linkages.

El objetivo de este estudio fue el de describir el perfil de anticuerpos, IgM, anti-PGL-1, metodo de ELISA, en donantes de sangre de areas de muy alta endemicidad e hiperendemicas en hanseniasis en el Estado de Para, Brasil, utilizando punto de corte (PC) ≥ 0,20. Otros objetivos fueron los de correlacionar los niveles de anticuerpos anti-PGL-1 a factores demograficos y la vacuna BCG e identificar el PC para la prueba anti-PGL-1 con base en el promedio de los niveles hallados. Los resultados no mostraron significancia estadistica entre sexo, edad, presencia de cicatriz de BCG y los niveles de anti-PGL-1. Se identificaron tres PCs: general, por hemocentro y por municipios. Con PC ≥ 0,13 (general), la seropositividad en las variables fue el doble en numeros absolutos, de 15 para 36, resultado estadisticamente no significativo (p > 0,05). El promedio de los niveles de anti-PGL-1 fue muy bajo para areas de parametros elevados, y no reflejaron la magnitud de la endemicidad de la hanseniasis en esas areas. El PC mas bajo se presento mas adecuado al comportamiento serologico identificado