Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don (Asteraceae), also known as immortelle, usually grows in the Mediterranean area. The composition of the essential oil (EO) of immortelle is a mixture of various aromatic substances, mainly monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. Distillation is the most widely used method for extraction of EO immortelle, although the yield is very low (<1%). In this work, we aim to investigate how the use of different distillation methods affects the yield and chemical composition of immortelle EO. For this purpose, we applied two conventional methods: steam distillation (SD) and hydrodistillation (HD), and a modern (environmentally friendly) technique—microwave-assisted distillation (MAD). Wild immortelles from four different locations in Croatia were collected and carefully prepared for extraction. Each sample was then analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). GraphPad Prisma statistical software was used to study the statistics between different groups of connections and analyze the data on the number of connections. The results show that HD gives a significantly higher yield (0.31 ± 0.09%) compared to MAD (0.15 ± 0.03%) and SD (0.12 ± 0.04%). On the other hand, the highest number of chemical compounds was identified with MAD (95.75 ± 15.31%), and most of them are subordinate compounds with complex structures. SD isolated EOs are rich in derived acyclic compounds with the highest percentage of ketones. The results show that the application of different distillation methods significantly affects the composition of the obtained immortelle EO, considering the yield of EO, the number of isolated, derived and non-derived compounds, chemotypes and compounds with simple (acyclic) and complex structures.

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Objective: This study aimed to determine the intravitreal concentration of VEGF in eyes with PDR and to evaluate the effects of previous PRP on its level. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study performed at the Clinical Centre University. It included 90 eyes surgically treated with PPV, divided into three groups, group A - patients with PDR with previous PRP, group B - patients with PDR without previous PRP, and group C - PPV performed due to the indication unrelated to diabetes. A vitreous sample was obtained during PPV, and the VEGF concentration was determined using an Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test (ELISA). Shapiro-Wilk, nonparametric tests Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whithney U test, ANOVA and Spearman’s correlation test were used. Results: The highest vitreous VEGF concentration was in group B - 972.96 (743.33-1149.13) and was higher than in group A - 69.22 (37.33-225.15) and in group C - 19.93 (1.15-32.17) (p<0.001). There was a positive correlation between VEGF vitreous concentration and glucose level in group A patients (Rho=0.410; p=0.027). Conclusion: As a treatment before PPV surgery, PRP showed to be effective in the reduction of VEGF levels, which also highlighted a decrease in complications during and postoperatively. Abbreviations: DRS = Diabetic Retinopathy Study, PDR = proliferative diabetic retinopathy, VEGF = vascular endothelial growth factor, PRP = pan-retinal photocoagulation, PPV = pars plana vitrectomy, HbA1c = glycosylated hemoglobin, ETDRS = Early treatment diabetic retinopathy study, ESR = erythrocyte sedimentation rate, BCVA = best corrected visual acuity, OCT = optical coherent tomography, ILM = internal limiting membrane, PHACO = phacoemulsification, IOL = intraocular lens, ELISA = Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test, AUC = area under the curve, DME = diabetic macular oedema, TDR = tractional retinal detachment, VMT = vitreomacular traction

5G Stand Alone (SA) networks are in the process of implementation, as the today's progress of the main business services to migrate to the 5G new services communication (enhanced Mobile Broadband - eMBB, Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications - URLLC, massive Machine Type Communications - mMTC) is estimated to slowly increase. There have been identified some key aspects responsible for the novel 5G communication adoption process, such as the complexity of the services deployment and the clear understanding of the huge potential of the technology that can further support the 5G vertical's stakeholders. This paper is representing the work of the EU funded project VITAL-5G in deploying 5G Stand Alone 3GPP Rel.16 testbeds, with enhanced network and services capabilities and 5G resources available to be offered to industries vertical's customers. The 5G solution of the testbed design is covering several aspects of the future 5G network implementation, such as services management and orchestration, automation of resources allocation, 5G network slicing (Radio Access Network, Core and Transport) and user traffic prioritization according to the service slice needs, eMBB and URLLC. An important aspect is the availability of the entire 5G ecosystem to be offered to the 5G developers and 3 rd parties for advanced and extensive trials such as Innovative Network Application (N etApps) implementations. By abstracting the complexity of underlying 5G infrastructure, reducing the time of service creation and deployment and optimizing the 5G resource usage, N etApps is a key enabler of 5G adoption.

One of the major challenges in 5G-based Cooperative Connected and Automated Mobility is to ensure continuity of a service that is deployed on the network edge and used by a moving vehicle. We propose enablers for smart cellular edges, which support service continuity in cross-border scenarios by the timely preparation of a service instance in an anticipated topologically closer target edge, and by connecting the vehicle to such service instance before the cellular handover occurs. In this paper, we use the edge data centers of a German and Austrian mobile operator to showcase two main enabling pillars for edge service continuity, i.e., i) transparent edge bridging by means of a programmable data plane to serve a vehicle from the target edge before the vehicle performs handover to a different operator, and ii) smart applications, which apply data analytics to boost orchestration decisions for target edge preparation.

A big challenge of autonomous mobility is guaranteeing safety in all possible extreme and unexpected scenarios. For the last 25 years, the sector therefore focused on improving the automation functions. Nevertheless, autonomous mobility is still not part of daily life. The 5G-Blueprint project follows an alternative approach: direct control teleoperation. This concept relies on 5G connectivity to remove the physical coupling between the human driver or sailor and the controlled vehicle or vessel. This way, automation and teleoperation can be combined as complementary technologies, assigning them to different segments of a single trajectory, realizing driverless mobility in a safe, scalable, and cost-efficient manner. However, this mode of operation brings demanding connectivity requirements, such as high uplink bandwidth, low latency and ultra-reliability at the same time, for which the potential of 5G needs to be studied and explored. In this paper, we present our performance validation strategies to pursue 5G-enhanced teleoperation in real-life environment (e.g., public roads, busy sea ports), including some initial results that we collected during the in-country piloting phase.