The world is facing an unprecedented outbreak affecting all aspects of human lives which is caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the virus novelty, healthcare systems are challenged by a high rate of patients and the shortage of medical products. To address an increased need for essential medical products, national authorities, worldwide, made various legislative concessions. This has led to essential medical products being produced by automotive, textile and other companies from various industries and approved under the emergency use authorizations or legal concessions of national regulatory bodies. This paper presents a narrative commentary of the available documentation on emergency use authorizations and legal concessions for medical products during COVID-19 pandemic. The basis for narrative commentary includes scientific articles published in Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed and Embase databases, official publications of international organizations: Food and Drug Agency (FDA), World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank and United Nations (UN), and national regulatory agency reports in native languages (English, German, Bosnian, and Croatian) published from November 1, 2019 to May 1, 2020. This paper focuses on three types of essential medical products: mechanical ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and diagnostic tests. Evidence-informed commentary of available data and potential identified risks of emergency use authorizations and legal concessions is presented. It is recognized that now more than ever, raising global awareness and knowledge about the importance of respecting the essential requirements is needed to guarantee the appropriate quality, performance and safety of medical products, especially during outbreak situation, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency use authorizations for production, import and approval of medical products should be strictly specified and clearly targeted from case to case and should not be general or universal for all medical products, because all of them are associated with different risk level. Presented considerations and experiences should be taken as a guide for all possible future outbreak situations to prevent improvised reactions of national regulatory bodies.

This paper contains results from ichthyofaunal research of freshwater fish in Bosnia and Herzegovina during 20th and at the beginning of twenty-first century. We found presence of more than 100 parasitic species from different groups in 52 freshwater fish species from Black Sea and Adriatic basins and some breeding ponds. Detected parasites belong to Trematoda – 25 species, Monogenea – 15, Cestoda – 16, Nematoda – 15, Acanthocephala - 11, Oligohymenophorea - 5, Phyllopharyngea - 3, and Copepoda – 2 species. Other detected parasite groups are Kinetoplastea, Trepomonadea, Myxosporea, Myxoza, Ichthyostraca, Clitellata and Bivalvia with one species each. This study shows the necessity of research of complete parasitic fauna of freshwater fish in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

: The main objective of this study was to examine the characteristics and the relationship between walnuts in the Una-Sana Canton based on phenotypic properties. This is the first study of preselection of walnut variability in this area. In this study, we evaluated the phenological and morphological characteristics of 75 selected genotypes during 2014 and 2015. Twenty-four phenotypic traits were monitored throughout 2 years on different sites. The results of the PCA analysis showed a very high heterogeneity of walnut seedlings on the examined sites, from the aspect of observed parameters. A limited number of superior genotypes were found, but individual genotypes with high nut and kernel weight, as well as the colour of the kernel were determined, which would classify them as high-ranked parents in hybridization programs. Certain number of genotypes with high values of traits such as: nut weight, kernel weight and a high percentage of kernel were selected for future studies. Amongst the selected trees, genotype G25 had the highest weight of nuts and kernel, as well as a satisfactory color of the kernel. This genotype could be used as a superior tree for further breeding programs in the future. A highlevel of phenotypic variability in this studyrevealed the existence of a rich genetics pool of nuts variation. The genetic diversity of walnuts obtained from our studies will represent a valuable source of information for breeding programs of Persian walnut in future.

ABSTRACT High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) can be present and cooperate with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) to promote the onset and/or progression of various cancers including cervical, breast, head and neck as well as colorectal. In this investigation, we explored the co-prevalence of high-risk HPV and EBV in 74 breast cancer tissues from Qatari women using polymerase chain reaction. We found that high-risk HPV and EBV are present in 48/74 (65%) and 36/74 (49%) of the cases, respectively. While we noted that the presence of HPV presence is associated with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) (p = .008), however, the presence of EBV did not correlate with any breast cancer subgroup. Moreover, our data revealed that high-risk HPV and EBV are co-present in 35/74 (47%) of the samples and their co-presence is significantly associated with tumor grade (p = .04) and tumor stage (p = .04). These data indicate that HPV and EBV are commonly co-present in breast cancer and their association could be linked with a more aggressive tumor phenotype. Thus, further investigations are essential to understand the underlying mechanisms of HPV and EBV cooperation in breast carcinogenesis.

Immersion tests with different stainless steels have been performed, while the pH was stepwise decreased and then increased again. During 8.5‐day exposure, the depassivation and repassivation pH values as a function of pitting resistance equivalent number were determined. There is always a gap between both pH values (depassivation and repassivation), indicating that for every steel, there are conditions where an existing passive layer can be maintained but cannot be rebuilt after depassivation. In such environments, the passive layer is thicker, consisting mainly of molybdenum and iron rich oxides, while chromium is dissolved. Usually, depending on conditions, the passive layer is more chromium‐rich, especially the inner layer. This is relevant, for example, for acidizing jobs in oil and gas industry, proving that repassivation after acidizing will happen promptly, when the pH is increased again.

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, (auto) immune disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Quality of life (QoL) refers to the perception of an individual’s life in the context of the system of culture and values in which they live. Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the distribution of cognitive disorders in people with MS. Methods: The prospective study included 135 participants with MS and 50 healthy participants. Participants were divided into three groups: the first group consisted of 85 participants where the disease lasted longer than one year, the second group consisted of 50 participants with newly diagnosed MS, the third group consisted of 50 healthy participants. The instruments of clinical assessment were: Extended Disability Score in Multiple Sclerosis Patients, Mini Mental Status, Beck Depression Scale, and Quality of Life Scale (SF-36, Contemporary Health Survey). Results: The quality of life related to health is impaired in the physical, mental dimension and overall quality of life. In the first group of participants, 62% had mild depression, and in the second group 38% of participants, while more severe forms were recorded in 16% of participants in both groups. As depression increases, the quality of life decreases in all measured dimensions, which would mean that depression negatively affects the quality of life. The results of all dimensions as well as the overall quality of life score are worse with the increase in the degree of clinical disability, for both groups of study patients. Conclusion: Quality of life is impaired in MS patients, and a higher degree of clinical disability and an increase in depressive disorder are predictors of deteriorating quality of life in MS patients.

Introduction: Lung cancer is a neoplasm with the highest mortality rate in the world. The role of neoadjuvant therapy in patients with initially assessed borderline operable or inoperable lung cancer is to improve survival by downstaging the tumor and allowing surgical resection, as well as the potential treatment of micrometastatic disease. Aim: Establishing the justification and efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy after the initial assessment of operability in patients with borderline operable and inoperable histopathologically verified stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer. Methods: The retrospective study included 65 patients with initially assessed stage IIIA lung cancer, who underwent neoadjuvant therapy. After the cycles of neoadjuvant therapy, 19 patients who achieved the regression of the tumor underwent surgery. We analyzed the histological type of the tumor, extent, and prevalence of surgical resection, the status of regional lymph nodes, and the achieved R status. Results: Of the total number of patients who underwent neoadjuvant therapy, after reevaluation of the disease, 19 patients (19/65, 29.23% of cases) achieved a clinical response, i.e. tumor downstaging. Of 19 patients who underwent surgery, 16 patients underwent surgical resection, while three patients underwent surgical exploration. The largest number of patients had N0 and N1 status (six patients each). R0 status was achieved in 14 patients (14/16, 87.5% of cases), while R1 in the remaining two. One patient had a fatal outcome. Conclusion: Neoadjuvant therapy plays an important role in the treatment of initially assessed borderline operable or inoperable lung cancers. By downstaging the tumor, it allows surgical resection and potential treatment of micrometastatic disease.

Introduction: Cervical cancer can be successfully prevented by timely detection of changes that precede it such as atypical (ASC-H) and high grade squamous lesions (HSIL). Aim: To investigate the correlation between Pap smear and colposcopy in the detection of premalignant and malignant cervical lesions based on a pathohistological finding. Methods: In a retrospective study 118 patients with HSIL and ASC-H findings were examined. A Pap smear, colposcopic examination and cervical canal biopsy were performed. The study was conducted at the Gynecological Center “Dr Mahira Jahic” Tuzla and the Clinical Center Tuzla, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Results: 1049 abnormal Pap tests were analyzed, ASCUS in 51,8% (N-544), LSIL 32,1% (N-337), HSIL 7,7% (N-81) and ASC-H 3,5% (N-37), AGC 4,8% (N-51). The mean age of the subjects with the abnormal Pap test was 46.33 ± 3.2. The age of patients with ASCUS lesion was 38,6 , LSIL 41,0, ASC-H was 47,3 , HSIL (CIN II and CIN III) 45,8 , while patients with CIS were 51,2 years. Pathological histology HSIL confirmed a high grade lesion in 67,7% (CIN II, CIN III and CIS) (N-55), in 32% (N-26) a lower grade CIN I in 18,5% and chronic cervicitis in 13,5% (N-11). In ASC-H lesion pathohistological HSIL was found in 13,5% (N-5), CIN I 13,5% (N-5) and chronic cervicitis 48,6 % (N-18). Abnormal colposcopic imaging with HSIL lesion was found in 72,9% (N-69), in 8,6% (N-7) was unsatisfactory and in 18,5% (N-15) the colposcopic finding was normal. In ASC-H lesions, abnormal colposcopic imaging was found in 40,5% (N-15), unsatisfactory findings in 10,8% (N-4), and normal findings in 48,6% (N-18). Conclusion: Colposcopy has proven to be better method than cytology with an accuracy of 72,9% in high-grade lesion such as HSIL and ASC-H.

Introduction: Sarajevo is the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the population in Canton Sarajevo of 438,443 people. The first cases of COVID-19 in Canton Sarajevo were on 20th March. On that day, we had three positive cases. These days at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in Canton of Sarajevo around 2500 citizens were in self-isolation at home. The aim of this paper is to show the journey of Canton Sarajevo in the fight against COVID-19 infection, the impact of measurements that were taken to stop the infection spreading and to compare pre- and post-lockdown stats.Methods: During the period March-July 2020, we have analyzed daily newly cases and followed them through the period of at least 14 days. All data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 (IBM Corp. Released in 2019. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, NY: IBM Corp.) and MS Office 2019 suite (Excel). For comparison, we have used the Chi-square test.Results: In the period of 10 weeks from the beginning of March to the 25th of May in Canton of Sarajevo, we had a total of 113 cases of COVID-19 infection. The number of conducted tests was 7515. In total, with positive retests, we had only 161 positive tests, which is 2.14% of all analyzed tests. From that number of patients, 58 (51.3%) were male and 55 (48.7%) were female. Regarding age distribution, under 65 years were 91.1% of patients.Conclusion: Choosing the best method to fight against COVID-19 is hard to determine. Staying at home would decrease the infection rate, but in the long term, it is not sustainable. Perhaps the mix of methods that we had in Sarajevo is the best option. Fighting against one epidemic cannot be the source for other epidemics.

Demographic data suggest a rapid aging trend in the active workforce. The concept of aging at work comes from the urgent requirement to help the aging workforce of the contemporary industries to maintain productivity while achieving a work and private life balance. While there is plenty of research focusing on the aging population, current research activities on policies covering the concept of aging at work are limited and conceptually different. This paper aims to review publications on aging at work, which could lead to the creation of a framework that targets governmental decision-makers, the non-governmental sector, the private sector, and all of those who are responsible for the formulation of policies on aging at work. In August 2019 we searched for peer-reviewed articles in English that were indexed in PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and Springer and published between 2008 and 2019. The keywords included the following phrases: “successful aging at work”, “active aging at work”, “healthy aging at work”, “productive aging at work”, and “older adults at work”. A total of 47,330 publications were found through database searching, and 25,187 publications were screened. Afterwards, 7756 screened publications were excluded from the further analysis, and a total of 17,431 article abstracts were evaluated for inclusion. Finally, further qualitative analysis included 1375 articles, of which about 24 are discussed in this article. The most prominent works suggest policies that encourage life-long learning, and a workforce that comprises both younger and older workers, as well as gradual retirement.

Abstract Heat dissipation in nanoelectronics has become a major bottleneck to further scaling in next-generation integrated circuits. In order to address this problem and develop more energy-efficient nanoelectronic transistor, sensor, and storage devices, we must understand thermal processes at the atomic scale, which requires numerical simulation of the interaction between electrons and heat, carried by quantized lattice vibrations called phonons. Here we examine in detail the phonon emission and absorption spectra in silicon at several elevated values for the electron temperature. The effect of electric field on the electron distribution and equivalent electron temperature is obtained from full-band Monte Carlo simulation for bulk silicon. The electron distributions are used to numerically compute the phonon emission and absorption spectra and discover trends in their behavior at high electron temperatures. The concept of electron temperature is used to understand the relationship between field and heat emission, and it is found that longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonon emission increases at high electron temperatures. It is also found that emission of slower zone-edge phonons increases for all phonon branches at high electron temperatures. These conclusions at high electric fields can be used to enable heat-conscious design of future silicon devices.

We propose a new estimator to measure directed dependencies in time series. The dimensionality of data is first reduced using a new non-uniform embedding technique, where the variables are ranked according to a weighted sum of the amount of new information and improvement of the prediction accuracy provided by the variables. Then, using a greedy approach, the most informative subsets are selected in an iterative way. The algorithm terminates, when the highest ranked variable is not able to significantly improve the accuracy of the prediction as compared to that obtained using the existing selected subsets. In a simulation study, we compare our estimator to existing state-of-the-art methods at different data lengths and directed dependencies strengths. It is demonstrated that the proposed estimator has a significantly higher accuracy than that of existing methods, especially for the difficult case, where the data are highly correlated and coupled. Moreover, we show its false detection of directed dependencies due to instantaneous couplings effect is lower than that of existing measures. We also show applicability of the proposed estimator on real intracranial electroencephalography data.

Abstract This article gives an overview of the applications of algebraic topology methods in signal processing. We explain how the notions and invariants such as (co)chain complexes and (co)homology of simplicial complexes can be used to gain insight into higher-order interactions of signals. The discussion begins with some basic ideas in classical circuits, continues with signals over graphs and simplicial complexes, and culminates with an overview of sheaf theory and the connections between sheaf cohomology and signal processing.