Psoriasis is an autoimmune and inflammatory skin disease. Psoriatic patients express higher levels of plasma homocysteine (Hcy) concentration and pro-inflammatory mediators than healthy people; this is frequently associated with vitamin D deficiency. The aim of this clinical study was to investigate the effects of high doses of vitamin D supplementation on the parameters of Hcy metabolism and cytokines in sera of psoriatic patients. This prospective study was conducted on 40 psoriatic patients who had the vitamin D deficiency. All patients received vitamin D 5000 IU/day for three months. Clinical and biochemical measurements were taken at baseline and at follow up (3 months). The results showed that the severity of clinical features, measured by the psoriasis area severity index (PASI) score, were considerably improved in patients after vitamin D supplementation. After vitamin D supplementation, most of the patients (n = 25 or 62.5%) had mild clinical form (p < 0.001). After twelve weeks of intervention period, there were significant increases in vitamin D and B12 serum levels in comparison to the levels that had been measured at the beginning of the study (56.77 ± 14.66 nmol/L and 301.08 ± 95.02 pg/mL vs. 103.85 ± 32.20 nmol/L and 362.81 ± 118.56 pg/mL, respectively; p < 0.001). Moreover, serum levels of Hcy and folate were significantly lower at the end of the study in comparison with the initial levels (12.45 ± 1.92 µmol/L and 8.01 ± 3.88 mg/mL vs. 10.38 ± 1.66 µmol/L and 6.27 ± 2.60 mg/mL, respectively). High doses of vitamin D supplementation led to a significant decrease in pro-inflammatory cytokines (IFN-ɤ, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-17) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), whereas the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, IL-5) was up-regulated. In conclusion, supplementation with high doses of vitamin D could be one of the possible preventive and therapeutic measures to reduce systemic inflammation in psoriatic patients.

Genetic variants in FOXO3 are associated with longevity. Here, we assessed whether blood DNA methylation at FOXO3 was associated with cancer risk, survival, and mortality. We used data from eight prospective case–control studies of breast (n = 409 cases), colorectal (n = 835), gastric (n = 170), kidney (n = 143), lung (n = 332), prostate (n = 869), and urothelial (n = 428) cancer and B-cell lymphoma (n = 438). Case–control pairs were matched on age, sex, country of birth, and smoking (lung cancer study). Conditional logistic regression was used to assess associations between cancer risk and methylation at 45 CpGs of FOXO3 included on the HumanMethylation450 assay. Mixed-effects Cox models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations with cancer survival (total n = 2286 deaths). Additionally, using data from 1088 older participants, we assessed associations of FOXO3 methylation with overall and cause-specific mortality (n = 354 deaths). Methylation at a CpG in the first exon region of FOXO3 (6:108882981) was associated with gastric cancer survival (HR = 2.39, 95% CI: 1.60–3.56, p = 1.9 × 10−5). Methylation at three CpGs in TSS1500 and gene body was associated with lung cancer survival (p < 6.1 × 10−5). We found no evidence of associations of FOXO3 methylation with cancer risk and mortality. Our findings may contribute to understanding the implication of FOXO3 in longevity.

An increasing number of studies have revealed that dysregulated lipid homeostasis is associated with the pathological processes that lead to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). If changes in key lipid species could be detected in the periphery, it would advance our understanding of the disease and facilitate biomarker discovery. Global lipidomic profiling of sera/blood however has proved challenging with limited disease or tissue specificity. Small extracellular vesicles (EV) in the central nervous system, can pass the blood‐brain barrier and enter the periphery, carrying a subset of lipids that could reflect lipid homeostasis in brain. This makes EVs uniquely suited for peripheral biomarker exploration.

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an increasingly common cause of chronic liver disease and is becoming a major public health problem. NAFLD has been recognized as a hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome, associated with systemic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the role of serum LFT parameters and renal function parameters as predictors of unmanifested liver disease. Methods: In this study, the presence of possible liver disease detected by biochemical parameters and confirmed by Transient Liver Elastography (TE) in a group of patients with different stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) was investigated. Patients with various stages of CKD were divided into five subgroups regarding aetiology: nephroangiosclerosis, diabetic nephropathy, glomerulonephritis and pyelonephritis, autoimmune kidney disease, and polycystic and another morphological kidney disease. Liver stiffness was used to quantify liver fibrosis while Controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) was used to quantify liver steatosis. Functional liver tests and biochemical parameters of kidney function were measured in all patients. Results: Statistical analysis used in this study was a decision tree as a predictive model to map observed variables resulting in the conclusion about outcomes. The application of existing laboratory parameters, in combination with other parameters in presence of the defined etiological factors of kidneys diseases, indicate development of hepatic diseases. Higher values of phosphorus and low values of ferritin in patients with autoimmune kidney disease, and polycystic and another morphological kidney disease, expresses steatosis of the hepatic parenchyma. Conclusion: In contrary, low values of phosphorus and higher values of ferritin in patients with nephroangiosclerosis, diabetic nephropathy, glomerulonephritis and pyelonephritis, are in a favour steatosis of the hepatic parenchyma. Serum values of phosphorus and ferritin are valuable predictors of the liver disease in patients with end-stage kidney diseases of different aetiology.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that COVID-19 outbreak has had on tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and specifically in Sarajevo Canton. Methodology – A survey was conducted in two rounds in March and September 2020, and responses were obtained from 126 running businesses from the tourism in Sarajevo Canton about the actual and expected consequences that COVID-19 outbreak has had on their business. The respondents were asked questions about the effects that COVID-19 has had on their business operations during the first six months of COVID-19 outbreak and their expectations for the future. The questions also included issues related to the government interventions and stimulus packages to overcome the effects of COVID-19 to ensure the sustainability of the tourism in Sarajevo Canton. Findings – Our results show that all businesses have faced a significant downturn in their business operations and had to undertake different measures and activities internally to overcome (and survive) the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results also show that there is very low level of satisfaction with the government interventions to tourism. Contribution – The findings illustrate and confirm many flaws in tourism system in Sarajevo Canton and BiH where tourism has been developing organically and without proper integration of the private and public industry. Our findings can be used for planning purposes and improvement of the situation during COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 period.

Abstract Large corporate scandals in the US and Europe, from the early 21st century, such as Enron, Parmalat, WorldCom and many others, have seriously shaken public confidence in the auditors’ work. Consequently, many countries have recognized the need for introduce the forensic accounting as a more advanced and reliable form of protection against manipulative financial reporting by companies, and have completed the accounting profession with the forensic accountant title, as an active fighter against various types of frauds in companies.

Kampus Sveučilišta Jurja Dobrile u Puli karakteriziraju istaknute arhitektonske vrijednosti i vrijednosti otvorenog prostora. Otvoreni prostori čine više od 50% površine kampusa i uvelike određuju njegovu estetiku. Kartiranje dendroflore i kategorizacija zelenih površina kampusa provedeno je s ciljem pružanja temeljnih znanja za učinkovitije i isplativije upravljanje zelenim površinama kampusa. Poticanje zelenih otvorenih površina napravili su studenti Pejzažne arhitekture na Univerzitetu u Sarajevu – Šumarski fakultet tokom međunarodne studentske radionice CAMPULA u listopadu 2019. Studija je rezultirala jasnim informacijama o funkcionalnim svojstvima zelenih elemenata u Kampusu. Na području kampusa kartirana je ukupno 301 jedinka (203 zimzelena stabla, 80 listopadnih stabala, 9 zimzelenih grmova, 6 listopadnih grmova i 3 zimzelene palme) . Ukupno su kartirana 32 taksona (20 zimzelenih i 12 listopadnih). Poboljšano upravljanje zelenim otvorenim prostorom pulskog kampusa može rezultirati iznimno vrijednim ekološkim, društvenim i estetskim akademskim zelenim prostorom.

Many recent research has focused on graphic design and shape of the packaging, and their effects on the customer's decision-making process as two separate categories. Since the shape of the packaging along with the graphic design plays an important role in the visual appearance of the packaging and attracts the customer's attention, the main objective of this research was to find out which packaging shapes and graphic elements customers find most attractive, as well as to understand the general opinion of customers about the influence of packaging aesthetics on their decision-making process when purchasing a product. Methodology of this research was conducted in two stages, from which the first one included creating three different graphic design solutions combined with three shape categories, and three variations of added value, for the same food packaging. The second part of the research covered an online questionnaire, in which a group of 50 people participated. This questionnaire focused on three variables: graphic design of the packaging, packaging shape and it’s added value. These variables were evaluated using the Likert scale. Through the questionnaire, participants were asked to answer general questions about the impact of the packaging visual appearance and added value, on their decision-making process when buying a product, as well as to choose the most appealing packaging between the given options. The research results showed that customers preferred non-standard packaging shapes and simple graphic design, as well as packaging with added value. The results of this research prove that the aesthetics of packaging has an impact on the customer's perception of a product, which means that packaging plays an important role in product marketing.