Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is triggered by extremely stressful environmental events and characterized by high emotional distress, re-experiencing of trauma, avoidance and hypervigilance. The present study uses polygenic risk scores (PRS) derived from the UK Biobank (UKBB) mega-cohort analysis as part of the PGC PTSD GWAS effort to determine the heritable basis of PTSD in the South Eastern Europe (SEE)-PTSD cohort. We further analyzed the relation between PRS and additional disease-related variables, such as number and intensity of life events, coping, sex and age at war on PTSD and CAPS as outcome variables. Association of PRS, number and intensity of life events, coping, sex and age on PTSD were calculated using logistic regression in a total of 321 subjects with current and remitted PTSD and 337 controls previously subjected to traumatic events but not having PTSD. In addition, PRS and other disease-related variables were tested for association with PTSD symptom severity, measured by the Clinician Administrated PTSD Scale (CAPS) by liner regression. To assess the relationship between the main outcomes PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity, each of the examined variables was adjusted for all other PTSD related variables. The categorical analysis showed significant polygenic risk in patients with remitted PTSD and the total sample, whereas no effects were found on symptom severity. Intensity of life events as well as the individual coping style were significantly associated with PTSD diagnosis in both current and remitted cases. The dimensional analyses showed as association of war-related frequency of trauma with symptom severity, whereas the intensity of trauma yielded significant results independently of trauma timing in current PTSD. The present PRS application in the SEE-PTSD cohort confirms modest but significant polygenic risk for PTSD diagnosis. Environmental factors, mainly the intensity of traumatic life events and negative coping strategies, yielded associations with PTSD both categorically and dimensionally with more significant p-values. This suggests that, at least in the present cohort of war-related trauma, the association of environmental factors and current individual coping strategies with PTSD psychopathology was stronger than the polygenic risk.

Introduction: Perceptions of the esthetic appearance of teeth vary in different individuals and can affect satisfaction with the dental appearance, attitudes, and the need for appropriate dental treatment. The research aims to examine the factors influencing the satisfaction with the appearance of the dentition and the attitude toward treatments which improve dental esthetics among students of the faculty of dentistry in comparison to the attitudes of students of non-dental faculties.Methods: The research included a total of 358 students of the Faculty of Dentistry and Faculty of Architecture in Sarajevo who voluntarily filled out a questionnaire created for this research. The questionnaire contained questions related to satisfaction with the appearance of teeth in general, tooth color, tooth position, questions related to the previous, and future desired esthetic restorations and treatments.Results: Female subjects expressed statistically significantly greater dissatisfaction with the appearance of the dentition and did or plan to do treatments that could improve dental esthetics compared to male subjects. Students of the Faculty of Dentistry at final years were significantly more satisfied with the general appearance of teeth and tooth color compared to freshmen students of the Faculty of Dentistry and students of the Faculty of Architecture.Conclusion: Satisfaction with dental appearance is a subjective experience that is influenced by various factors, level, and type of education is among them.

Introduction: Positive attitudes toward the nursing profession among nursing students improve the sustainability of the profession. Studying the attitudes of nursing students toward nursing is of great importance, as it can indicate their remaining in the profession. This study aimed to determine the attitudes of nursing students toward the nursing profession.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive, analytical study. The research was conducted at the Faculty of Health Studies at the University of Sarajevo from May to June 2019. The study involved a convenience sample of 107 currently enrolled Bachelor of Nursing students from the 1st to the 4th (and final) year of full-time study and part-time students in the Baccalaureate of Nursing Care program at the University of Sarajevo. The students voluntarily and anonymously completed a questionnaire consisting of demographic information and the Nursing Image Questionnaire.Results: Overall, 107 students participated in the research. Their mean age was 23 years old (standard deviation, 5 years). Spearman’s correlation factor shows a statistically significant correlation between the scores and the mode of studying (full-time or part-time) (rho = −0.200*, p = 0.039) and whether respondents working in the profession or not (rho = 0.249*, p = 0.010).Conclusion: The attitudes of future Bachelor of Nursing toward the nursing profession were very positive. Full-time students had more positive attitudes toward the profession, compared with part-time students, although the difference was not statistically significant.

: Students spend much time in doing their physics homework. Whether this effort results in deep learning depends on the quality of the mere homework. Therefore, we designed a minds-on simulation-based approach to physics homework and conducted a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment to compare its effectiveness to the effectiveness of traditional homework. Our student sample consisted of 39 first year high-school students from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In two school hours, all students received the same lectures about gas laws. Next, the experimental group students solved simulation-based homework in which their planning of actions, execution of actions and self-reflection was supported by a carefully prepared worksheet and survey. The traditional group’s homework consisted of three textbook problems and covered the same content, which is gas laws. Through analysis of covariance it was shown that the minds-on simulation-based homework was significantly more effective in developing students’ understanding of gas laws than traditional homework. The experimental group students perceived the simulation-based homework as interesting, challenging and useful.

Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Research Center for Adult and Pediatric Rheumatic Diseases, University of Milan, Milan, Italy, Pediatric Rheumatology Unit, ASST G. Pini & CTO, Milan, Italy, Department of Obstetrics, Instituto Fernandes Figueira, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Clinical Rheumatology Unit, ASST G. Pini & CTO, Milan, Italy, Department of Allergology, Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Children’s Hospital, Ljubljana, Slovenia, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

<jats:p>We present the bifurcation results for the difference equation <jats:inline-formula> <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"> <msub> <mrow> <mi>x</mi> </mrow> <mrow> <mi>n</mi> <mo>+</mo> <mn>1</mn> </mrow> </msub> <mo>=</mo> <mrow> <msubsup> <mi>x</mi> <mi>n</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msubsup> </mrow> <mo>/</mo> <mfenced open="(" close=")" separators="|"> <mrow> <mi>a</mi> <msubsup> <mi>x</mi> <mi>n</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msubsup> <mo>+</mo> <msubsup> <mi>x</mi> <mrow> <mi>n</mi> <mo>−</mo> <mn>1</mn> </mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msubsup> <mo>+</mo> <mi>f</mi> </mrow> </mfenced> </math> </jats:inline-formula> where <jats:inline-formula> <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"> <mi>a</mi> </math> </jats:inline-formula> and <jats:inline-formula> <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"> <mi>f</mi> </math> </jats:inline-formula> are positive numbers and the initial conditions <jats:inline-formula> <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"> <msub> <mrow> <mi>x</mi> </mrow> <mrow> <mo>−</mo> <mn>1</mn> </mrow> </msub> </math> </jats:inline-formula> and <jats:inline-formula> <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5"> <msub> <mrow> <mi>x</mi> </mrow> <mrow> <mn>0</mn> </mrow> </msub> </math> </jats:inline-formula> are nonnegative numbers. This difference equation is one of the perturbations of the sigmoid Beverton–Holt difference equation, which is a major mathematical model in population dynamics. We will show that this difference equation exhibits transcritical and Neimark–Sacker bifurcations but not flip (period-doubling) bifurcation since this difference equation cannot have period-two solutions. Furthermore, we give the asymptotic approximation of the invariant manifolds, stable, unstable, and center manifolds of the equilibrium solutions. We give the necessary and sufficient conditions for global asymptotic stability of the zero equilibrium as well as sufficient conditions for global asymptotic stability of the positive equilibrium.</jats:p>

In this work, we present a novel multi-modal multi-agent trajectory prediction architecture, focusing on map and interaction modeling using graph representation. For the purposes of map modeling, we capture rich topological structure into vector-based star graphs, which enable an agent to directly attend to relevant regions along polylines that are used to represent the map. We denote this architecture StarNet, and integrate it into a single-agent prediction setting. As the main result, we extend this architecture to joint scene-level prediction, which produces multiple agents’ predictions simultaneously. The key idea in joint-StarNet is integrating the awareness of one agent in its own reference frame with how it is perceived from the points of view of other agents. We achieve this via masked self-attention. Both proposed architectures are built on top of the action-space prediction framework introduced in our previous work, which ensures kinematically feasible trajectory predictions. We evaluate the methods on the interaction-rich inD and INTERACTION datasets, with both StarNet and joint-StarNet achieving improvements over state of the art.

von Willebrand factor (VWF) and factor VIII (FVIII) circulate in a noncovalent complex in blood and promote primary hemostasis and clotting, respectively. A new VWF A1-domain binding aptamer, BT200, demonstrated good subcutaneous bioavailability and a long half-life in non-human primates. This first-in-human, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial tested the hypothesis that BT200 is well tolerated and has favorable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects in 112 volunteers. Participants received one of the following: a single ascending dose of BT200 (0.18-48 mg) subcutaneously, an intravenous dose, BT200 with concomitant desmopressin or multiple doses. Pharmacokinetics were characterized, and the pharmacodynamic effects were measured by VWF levels, FVIII clotting activity, ristocetin-induced aggregation, platelet function under high shear rates, and thrombin generation. The mean half-lives ranged from 7-12 days and subcutaneous bioavailability increased dose-dependently exceeding 55% for doses of 6-48 mg. By blocking free A1 domains, BT200 dose-dependently decreased ristocetin-induced aggregation, and prolonged collagen-adenosine diphosphate and shear-induced platelet plug formation times. However, BT200 also increased VWF antigen and FVIII levels 4-fold (P<0.001), without increasing VWF propeptide levels, indicating decreased VWF/FVIII clearance. This, in turn, increased thrombin generation and accelerated clotting. Desmopressin-induced VWF/FVIII release had additive effects on a background of BT200. Tolerability and safety were generally good, but exaggerated pharmacology was seen at saturating doses. This trial identified a novel mechanism of action for BT200: BT200 dose-dependently increases VWF/FVIII by prolonging half-life at doses well below those which inhibit VWF-mediated platelet function. This novel property can be exploited therapeutically to enhance hemostasis in congenital bleeding disorders.

Many scholars perceive price competitiveness as a highly relevant element of tourism competitiveness in improving tourism performance. We focused our research interest specifically to understand whether price competitiveness is an important policy instrument in attracting international tourists and their spending. Our empirical study focused on how price competitiveness behaves as a predictor of tourism performance in different economic conditions and whether price competitiveness is a significant cause of tourism competitiveness in improving tourism performance. For that purpose, we conducted empirical analysis within two stages: moderation analysis to understand how price competitiveness influences tourism performance from the point of view of inbound international tourism and how this relationship behaves in different economic conditions; and mediation analysis to understand whether price competitiveness is relevant cause for tourist competitiveness in improving tourism performance. This study has revealed different views about price competitiveness and its influence on the tourism industry. The findings indicate that price competitiveness has rather limited effects on the outcomes of the tourism industry and is not a cause of overall tourism competitiveness in improving tourism performance.

This chapter addresses the concepts and methods to assess quantitative indicators of Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) at stand and management unit levels. First, the basic concepts for developing a framework for assessing CSF were reviewed. The suitable properties of indicators and methods for normalization, weighting, and aggregation were summarized. The proposed conceptual approach considers the CSF assessment as an adaptive learning process, which integrates scientific knowledge and participatory approaches. Then, climate smart indicators were applied on long-term experimental plots to assess CSF of spruce-fir-beech mixed mountain forest. Redundancy and trade-offs between indicators, as well as their sensitivity to management regimes, were analyzed with the aim of improving the practicability of indicators. At the management unit level, the roles of indicators in the different phases of forest management planning were reviewed. A set of 56 indicators were used to assess their importance for management planning in four European countries. The results indicated that the most relevant indicators differed from the set of Pan-European indicators of sustainable forest management. Finally, we discussed results obtained and future challenges, including the following: (i) how to strengthen indicator selections and CSF assessment at stand level, (ii) the potential integration of CSF indicators into silvicultural guidelines, and (iii) the main challenges for integrating indicators into climate-smart forest planning.

Understanding tree and stand growth dynamics in the frame of climate change calls for large-scale analyses. For analysing growth patterns in mountain forests across Europe, the CLIMO consortium compiled a network of observational plots across European mountain regions. Here, we describe the design and efficacy of this network of plots in monospecific European beech and mixed-species stands of Norway spruce, European beech, and silver fir.First, we sketch the state of the art of existing monitoring and observational approaches for assessing the growth of mountain forests. Second, we introduce the design, measurement protocols, as well as site and stand characteristics, and we stress the innovation of the newly compiled network. Third, we give an overview of the growth and yield data at stand and tree level, sketch the growth characteristics along elevation gradients, and introduce the methods of statistical evaluation. Fourth, we report additional measurements of soil, genetic resources, and climate smartness indicators and criteria, which were available for statistical evaluation and testing hypotheses. Fifth, we present the ESFONET (European Smart Forest Network) approach of data and knowledge dissemination. The discussion is focussed on the novelty and relevance of the database, its potential for monitoring, understanding and management of mountain forests toward climate smartness, and the requirements for future assessments and inventories.In this chapter, we describe the design and efficacy of this network of plots in monospecific European beech and mixed-species stands of Norway spruce, European beech, and silver fir. We present how to acquire and evaluate data from individual trees and the whole stand to quantify and understand the growth of mountain forests in Europe under climate change. It will provide concepts, models, and practical hints for analogous trans-geographic projects that may be based on the existing and newly recorded data on forests.

Models to predict the effects of different silvicultural treatments on future forest development are the best available tools to demonstrate and test possible climate-smart pathways of mountain forestry. This chapter reviews the state of the art in modelling approaches to predict the future growth of European mountain forests under changing environmental and management conditions. Growth models, both mechanistic and empirical, which are currently available to predict forest growth are reviewed. The chapter also discusses the potential of integrating the effects of genetic origin, species mixture and new silvicultural prescriptions on biomass production into the growth models. The potential of growth simulations to quantify indicators of climate-smart forestry (CSF) is evaluated as well. We conclude that available forest growth models largely differ from each other in many ways, and so they provide a large range of future growth estimates. However, the fast development of computing capacity allows and will allow a wide range of growth simulations and multi-model averaging to produce robust estimates. Still, great attention is required to evaluate the performance of the models. Remote sensing measurements will allow the use of growth models across ecological gradients.

Mountain forests in Europe have to face recently speeding-up phenomena related to climate change, reflected not only by the increases in the mean global temperature but also by frequent extreme events, that can cause a lot of various damages threatening forest stability. The crucial task of management is to adapt forests to environmental uncertainties using various strategies that should be undertaken to enhance forest resistance and resilience, as well as to maintain forest biodiversity and provision of ecosystem services at requested levels. Forests can play an important role in the mitigation of climate change. The stand features that increase forest climate smartness could be improved by applying appropriate silvicultural measures, which are powerful tools to modify forests. The chapter provides information on the importance of selected stand features in the face of climate change and silvicultural prescriptions on stand level focusing to achieve the required level of climate smartness. The selection of silvicultural prescriptions should be also supported by the application of simulation models. The sets of the various treatments and management alternatives should be an inherent part of adaptive forest management that is a leading approach in changing environmental conditions.