Even though drug abuse can be found in every stage of human life its occurrence in adolescence seems to be the most important due to the serious consequences on personality development and quality of life. Youngsters like to experiment with risky life styles, without adequate knowledge about long-term health effects. Alcoholism ranks high on the list of the prevailing psychiatric disorders, followed by phobias, depressive disorders and symptoms of other psychoactive substances. As a country in transition, Bosnia &Herzegovina has all characteristics of the post-war community and post-traumatic society. Our goal was to analyse some of psychosomatic factors among adolescents who abuse alcohol. Data and Method: The research focused on 600 adolescents (400 in Sarajevo Canton and 200 in Tuzla Canton - in both their rural and urban parts). This group is of an equal gender and age distributions. The research tool used was Q 2000 test. Study design is prospective, epidemiological and analytical. Results were compared within the groups, as well as the Cantons and the groups. Out of the total number of the adolescents, 15,55% of them were found to be alcohol abusers. The results show 71, 0% of high school first-graders (age 15-17) consume alcohol; while that percentage is 29, 0 in elementary school pupils (age 12-14). A significant difference between high school students and elementary school pupils is obvious. A significant statistical gender difference between alcohol consumers and non-consumers is evident. Distribution of alcohol consumers by gender: 68,8% boys while 31, 2% girls Results shows somatic disorders exhibited by alcohol consumers: sleepiness 59,6%, body pains 34,1% and a clear difference in frequency of sleepiness between consumers and non-consumers.

Ligand binding causes the EGF receptor (EGFR) to become ubiquitinated by Cbl upon association with the adaptor protein Grb2. We have investigated the role of ubiquitin and Grb2 in ligand-induced endocytosis of the EGFR. Incubation of cells with EGF on ice caused translocation of Grb2 and Cbl from the cytosol to the rim of coated pits. Grb2 with point mutations in both SH3 domains inhibited recruitment of the EGFR to clathrin-coated pits, in a Ras-independent manner. On overexpression of the Cbl-binding protein Sprouty, ubiquitination of the EGFR was inhibited, the EGFR was recruited only to the rim of coated pits, and endocytosis of the EGFR was inhibited. Conjugation-defective ubiquitin similarly inhibited recruitment of EGF-EGFR to clathrin-coated pits. Even though this does not prove that cargo must be ubiquitinated, this indicates the importance of interaction of ubiquitinated protein(s) with proteins harboring ubiquitin-interacting domains. We propose that Grb2 mediates transient anchoring of the EGFR to an Eps15-containing molecular complex at the rim of coated pits and that Cbl-induced ubiquitination of the EGFR allows relocation of EGFR from the rim to the center of clathrin-coated pits.

Retained surgical textile foreign bodies are a problem despite precautions taken by surgeons. Computed tomography (CT) is a method of choice in diagnosing the cases of retained textilomas. Over 12 years, we diagnosed 11 acute textilomas in 10 patients in the early postoperative period within 3 months after abdominal surgery. The presence of considerable amount of air bubbles within textile fibers was the most representative sign. A 3-10 mm wide peripheral rim was present in all textilomas. In additional 3 cases, chronic, encapsulated foreign body granulomas were found, two were mimicking renal neoplasms. All granulomas contained discrete or coarse calcifications. The period between surgery and CT diagnosis was from 6 months to 14 years in chronic lesions. It is important to emphasize that 9 textilloma in 8 patients were associated with the years of war in Croatia (1991 and 1992), in hospitals on battle fronts, where surgeons worked under extremely strenuous conditions and with great inflow of wounded soldiers and civilians.