In the aim of this study was to analyze oral hygiene maintenance habits and the correctness of applying oral hygiene methods among students of the Faculty of Dentistry and students of other faculties at the University of Sarajevo, with focus on assessing the importance of oral hygiene in the prevention of gingivitis. Materials and methods: The study included 30 students from the Faculty of Dentistry and 30 students from other faculties. The age of participants ranged from 21 to 26 years. All participants signed informed consent for voluntary participation prior to the examination. Data were recorded on specially designed forms. Inclusion criteria were systemic health and absence of ongoing therapy. All participants answered questions regarding harmful habits, oral hygiene practices, and regular dental visits. A clinical examination of the gingiva was performed, including the assessment of periodontal indices and diagnostic tests. Results: Dental students demonstrated better oral hygiene habits and gingival health compared to students from other faculties. Plaque, calculus, and gingival index values were lower among dental students, while signs of gingival inflammation—such as redness, smooth surface, and a positive Pitting test - were more common among students of other faculties. Dental students more frequently used interdental cleaning aids and regularly visited the dentist, indicating a higher level of knowledge and awareness regarding oral health. Conclusion: The results confirm that education plays a key role in maintaining oral health and highlight the need for preventive and educational programs even among populations not belonging to the dental profession.

Background: Periapical lesions in adolescents present a particular therapeutic challenge due to age related anatomical and physiological characteristics, including greater susceptibility to dental trauma, higher caries risk, wide apical foramen and thin dentinal walls. At the same time, high regenerative capacity offers the possibility of successful treatment even in cases with an initially very poor prognosis. Case Presentation: This report presents a 14-year-old patient with a massive periapical lesion and an iatrogenic root canal perforation of tooth 12. Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging revealed an extensive osseous defect with complete perforation of the palatal cortical plate and marked destruction of the vestibular bone. Management included sealing the perforation with MTA under an operative microscope and endodontic treatment followed by apicoectomy with bone graft augmentation and placement of a PRF membrane. After the surgery, the tooth was stabilized with a wire-composite splint until physiologic stability was restored. A four-month follow-up CBCT scan showed complete repair of the osseous defect, homogeneous graft integration, re-established cortical continuity, and preservation of a normal periodontal ligament space. Clinically, stable function and satisfactory esthetics were achieved. Conclusion: This case demonstrates that even large periapical lesions complicated by iatrogenic perforation with an initially unfavorable prognosis can be successfully managed through a combination of advanced endodontic therapy and surgical intervention. A multidisciplinary approach, precise diagnostics, and the use of bioactive materials enabled preservation of the natural tooth and complete recovery of periapical structures in an adolescent patient.

Background: The Acute Apical Abscess (AAA) represents a common endodontic emergency. The aim of this case report was to present successful root canal treatment, despite poor and uncertain prognosis. Case presentation: Despite the severity of the findings, which required a modification from standard therapeutic approach, the patient underwent immediate root canal treatment. The modified protocol involved the repeated, long-term application of aqueous calcium hydroxide paste, enhanced with methylcellulose. This formulation achieved a rapid pH increase and effective endotoxin neutralization, initiating bone healing. Conclusion: This case highlights the clinical significance of long-term calcium hydroxide dressing in the conservative management of AAA with extensive periapical bone resorption. The extended medication protocol induced bone healing, enabling the completion of the root canal treatment and resulting in a favorable long-term therapeutic outcome, contrary to the initial prognosis.

Gingival melanin or metal tattoo pigmentation is occasionally observed and produces aesthetic problems to the patients while smiling. Among dental lasers, the Er:YAG laser used water spray minimizes the thermal changes of the irradiated soft tissue and safe and effective tool for depigmentation procedure. Microscope-assisted Er:YAG laser surgery can precisely detect and remove melanin pigmentation and metal debris embedded in the connective tissue. When using a laser device in a microsurgery, it is necessary to pay attention to safety. It is essential to wear protective goggles to protect from reflections and scattered light during treatment.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation and destruction of cartilage, as well as by extra-articular manifestations. Rheumatoid nephropathy is a common complication of RA and its principal target is the renal corpuscle. Vitamin D and its analogs exert immunomodulatory actions throughout the body due to the widespread of their receptors. Our study aimed to compare the effects of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) and alfacalcidol on renal corpuscle changes in pristane-induced RA model following a 28-day treatment, using geometric morphometrics. Forty female Wistar rats (190–210 g; 12–13 weeks old) were randomly assigned to four groups: the control (Cont) group (n = 10) received saline i.c., the PIA group (n = 10) was administered pristane i.c., PIA-ALF group (n = 10) was administered pristane i.c. and alfacalcidol orally, and the PIA-CH group (n = 10) was injected i.c. with pristane and received cholecalciferol orally. Pristane administration was used for RA induction. At the end of the experiment, the left kidneys were removed and processed by standard histological procedures for geometric morphometric analysis. Geometric morphometric analysis demonstrated that, compared with the control group, the architecture of the renal corpuscles was altered in the PIA (p < 0.0001) and PIA-CH (p = 0.0065) groups. In contrast, no statistically significant differences were observed in the PIA-ALF group (p = 0.3011). Geometric morphometric analysis demonstrated that alfacalcidol, but not cholecalciferol, exertedaprotective effect on the renal corpuscle architecture in pristane-induced rheumatoid arthritis in rats.

Gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders are characterized by abnormalities in the motor functions of the GI tract. The diagnostic evaluation of these disorders frequently involves invasive and time-consuming examinations, for which access may be limited. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) could serve as non-invasive alternative. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the potential of exhaled breath VOCs as biomarkers in patients with GI symptoms and potential GI motility disorders. In this exploratory, prospective study, breath samples were obtained from patients undergoing ambulatory motility tests as part of routine clinical care. VOCs in exhaled breath were assessed using thermal desorption chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). The resulting data were subsequently pre-processed and analyzed using machine learning approaches. Hundred participants were included in the analysis, of whom 67 were women (67%), with a median age of 56.5 years (IQR: 29.8). The diagnostic work-up comprised 55 gastric emptying tests, 55 high-resolution esophageal manometries, 3 antroduodenal manometries, and 1 colon manometry. These examinations resulted in 48 motility disorder diagnoses, while 51 patients showed no evidence of motility abnormalities. Fifteen VOCs were identified as most discriminative markers for the presence or absence of GI dysmotility, with a sensitivity of 75%, and specificity of 60%. VOCs in exhaled breath show promise to distinguish patients with GI motility disorders from those without, in a population of patients with GI symptoms. Future research is warranted to further refine and validate these results in a larger cohort and to explore the diagnostic performance of VOCs in specific subtypes of motility disorders.

This study aimed to examine the role of recruitment and selection practices in shaping employee organizational commitment in organizations operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The empirical research was conducted on a sample of 128 companies from different regions of the country, and the data were collected through a survey questionnaire. The dimensional structure of the research constructs was examined using multivariate statistical procedures, after which the proposed hypotheses were tested through regression analysis. The findings indicate that recruitment and selection practices have a statistically significant and positive impact on overall organizational commitment. In addition, a significant positive relationship was identified between recruitment and selection practices and affective and normative organizational commitment, while the relationship with continuance commitment, although statistically significant, was notably weaker. These results suggest that transparent, fair, and consistently implemented recruitment and selection practices contribute more strongly to employees’ emotional attachment and sense of moral obligation toward the organization than to commitment primarily driven by perceived costs of leaving. The findings are discussed in relation to existing theoretical and empirical research, emphasizing the importance of professional hiring practices for long-term employee commitment. In the specific context of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where organizations face persistent challenges related to employee retention and labor market mobility, the study emphasizes the strategic role of recruitment and selection systems as internal mechanisms for enhancing organizational commitment and fostering stable and sustainable employment relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the CONNECT 2025 Symposium in Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the angle of a junior organizer and a lecturer. We share our journey from the Western Balkans toward academic and research paths in the EU, beginning with CONNECT in 2017 and continuing through studies, research, and PhD work in Germany. Along the way, we highlight why studying abroad matters, what it teaches beyond formal education, and how these experiences can be brought back to strengthen local communities. The contribution also summarizes two accompanying lectures on AI in Science and Gender and Science in the Western Balkans, linking personal experience with broader scientific and societal themes.

Maleic anhydride is a key intermediate in the chemical industry, predominantly produced through the partial oxidation of n-butane over vanadium-phosphorus-oxide (VPO) catalysts. This reaction is accompanied by side reactions that lead to the formation of undesired by-products, primarily CO and CO₂. In this work, a previously developed mathematical model of a fixed-bed tubular reactor was extended to include a catalyst activity function accounting for catalyst deactivation, and the kinetic parameters were optimized using experimental data from an industrial reactor at Koksara d.o.o. Lukavac. The model describes the partial oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride through multiple reactions, with reaction rates expressed as functions of temperature, partial pressures, and catalyst activity. Numerical simulations were performed using MATLAB, employing a nonlinear least-squares solver to minimize the deviation between the predicted and measured temperature profiles along the reactor. The validated model showed good agreement with experimental data, demonstrating its capability to accurately simulate reactor behavior under typical industrial conditions. Parametric studies were conducted to analyze the effects of inlet n-butane and oxygen flow rates, reaction mixture temperature, and pressure on the formation of CO and CO₂. The results indicate that by-product formation is strongly influenced by the oxygen/n-butane ratio, temperature, pressure, and the catalyst oxidation state. Higher oxygen flow rates and elevated temperatures increase CO and CO₂ formation, while lower values reduce their production. Changes in n-butane flow have a minor effect on CO₂, but more pronounced effects on CO due to the interplay between partial and complete oxidation at different catalyst sites. Increasing the inlet pressure enhances by-product formation by increasing reactant concentrations, whereas reduced pressure decreases CO and CO₂ formation. The developed model provides a practical tool for understanding and optimizing industrial maleic anhydride production. It offers insights into the effects of key process parameters on by-product formation, supporting improved reactor operation, reduced trial-and-error experimentation, and more efficient industrial process design.

This research examines which organizational structure would yield the best results for the operations of a selected agro-food company. To do this, a decision-making model was developed, including six organizational structures and 19 criteria. The model was evaluated by experts using linguistic assessments. In addition, uncertainty was incorporated into this decision-making process through an intuitionistic approach. The results were obtained using the SiWeC (Simple Weight Calculation) and RAWEC (Ranking of Alternatives with Weights of Criterion) methods. The SiWeC method identified employee satisfaction and decision-making speed as the most important criteria, while the RAWEC method found that a digital organizational structure provides the best results. However, to achieve even better results in this company, it is necessary to upgrade the digital organizational structure to a network structure, leveraging the strengths of both. In this way, by forming a hybrid organizational structure, better effects would be obtained than using a single organizational structure.

Reduplication of linguistic units at different levels is a widespread phenomenon both in Arabic in general and in the text of the Qur'an. Therefore, some of its forms, such as lexical repetition, syntactic parallelism, and reduplication at the semantic level, are frequently discussed in the literature as cohesive and text building devices. The main goal of this paper is the analysis of the forms and functions of system intrinsic forms of reduplication in Arabic, i.e. reduplication of grammatical morphemes, derivational patterns, and a specific form of root morpheme reduplication producing a unique semantic effect. The analysis is based on the analytical-descriptive method and the typological-functional approach. Although the reduplication of grammatical morphemes and derivational patterns originates from the core rules of the Arabic language system, the analysis presented in the paper shows that its usage plays a significant role in the text of the Qur'an. In addition to producing of the complex sound patterns of rhyme and rhythm, it also serves as a text-building and cohesive device, and a means of emphasis, reinforcing the content of the message by drawing attention to its form.

The prevailing paradigm in AI for physical systems, scaling general-purpose foundation models toward universal multimodal reasoning, confronts a fundamental barrier at the control interface. Recent benchmarks show that even frontier vision-language models achieve only 50-53% accuracy on basic quantitative physics tasks, behaving as approximate guessers that preserve semantic plausibility while violating physical constraints. This input unfaithfulness is not a scaling deficiency but a structural limitation. Perception-centric architectures optimize parameter-space imitation, whereas safety-critical control demands outcome-space guarantees over executed actions. Here, we present a fundamentally different pathway toward domain-specific foundation models by introducing compact language models operating as Agentic Physical AI, in which policy optimization is driven by physics-based validation rather than perceptual inference. We train a 360-million-parameter model on synthetic reactor control scenarios, scaling the dataset from 10^3 to 10^5 examples. This induces a sharp phase transition absent in general-purpose models. Small-scale systems exhibit high-variance imitation with catastrophic tail risk, while large-scale models undergo variance collapse exceeding 500x reduction, stabilizing execution-level behavior. Despite balanced exposure to four actuation families, the model autonomously rejects approximately 70% of the training distribution and concentrates 95% of runtime execution on a single-bank strategy. Learned representations transfer across distinct physics and continuous input modalities without architectural modification.