Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by major social, communication and behavioural challenges. The cause of ASD is still unclear and it is assumed that environmental, genetic and epigenetic factors influence the risk of ASD occurrence. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short 21–25 nucleotide long RNA molecules which post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression. MiRNAs play an important role in central nervous system development; therefore, dysregulation of miRNAs is connected to changes in behaviour and cognition observed in many disorders including ASD. Based on previously published work, on diagnosing ASD using miRNAs, we hypothesized that miRNAs can be used as biomarkers in children with suspected developmental disorders (DD) including ASD within Bosnian-Herzegovinian (B&H) population. 14 selected miRNAs were tested on saliva of children with suspected developmental disorders including ASD. The method of choice was qRT-PCR as a relatively cheap method available in most diagnostic laboratories in low to mid-income countries (LMIC). Out of 14 analysed miRNAs, 6 were differentially expressed between typically developing children and children with some type of developmental disorder including autism spectrum disorder. Using the most optimal logistic regression, we were able to distinguish between ASD and typically developing (TD) children. We have found 5 miRNAs as potential biomarkers. From those, 3 were differentially expressed within the ASD cohort. All 5 miRNAs had shown good chi-square statistics within the logistic regression performed on all 14 analysed miRNAs. The accuracy of 5-miRNAs model training set was 90.2%, while the validation set had a 90% accuracy. This study has shown that miRNAs may be considered as biomarkers for ASD detection and may be used to identify children with ASD along with standard developmental screening tests. By combining these methods we may be able to reach a reliable and accessible diagnostic model for children with ASD in LMIC such as B&H.

The goal of the paper is to derive some approximate formulas for the logarithmic derivative of several zata functions of Selberg’s type for compact symmetric spaces formed as quotients of the Lie group SL4 (R). Such formulas, known in literature as Tutchmarsh-Landau style approximate formulas, are usually applied in order to obtain prime geodesic theorems in various settings of underlying locally symmetric spaces.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight as to how recent trends in virtual reality (VR) have changed the way tourism and hospitality industry communicates their offerings and meets the tourists’ needs. Design/methodology/approach The approach is based on systematic literature review, where the relations between focal concepts are given to analyze potential future developments concerning VR. Findings The paper identifies and analyzes how VR technology affected tourism and hospitality industry through three main touch points – future tourism planning and management, technology-based marketing of tourism destinations and VR potential in changing consumer requirements. These concepts were analyzed to identify changing forces and suggest potential paradigm shifts that tourism and hospitality suppliers and marketers need to consider. These included realistic virtual travel replacements, the importance of interactive experiences and innovation in future tourism systems. Originality/value While there has been increasingly larger number of discussions on how tourists and tourism and hospitality industry have been using information and communication technology recently, there is little evidence of scholars and practitioners applying such methods. This paper used systematic literature review to illustrate means in which VR could be ingrained into tourism and hospitality services to meet the needs of tourists. It suggests that VR can and probably will fundamentally change the way in which tourists’ experiences and requirements are managed entirely.

Acute erythroleukemia (AML-M6 or AEL) is a rare but aggressive hematologic malignancy. Previous studies showed that AEL leukemic cells often carry complex karyotypes and mutations in known AML-associated oncogenes. To better define the underlying molecular mechanisms driving the erythroid phenotype, we studied a series of 33 AEL samples representing three genetic AEL subgroups including TP53-mutated, epigenetic regulator-mutated (e.g. DNMT3A, TET2 or IDH2), and undefined cases with low mutational burden. We established an erythroid vs. myeloid transcriptomics-based space in which, independently of the molecular subgroup, the majority of the AEL samples exhibited a unique mapping different from both non-M6 AML and myelodysplastic syndrome samples. Notably, more than 25% of AEL patients, including in the genetically-undefined subgroup, showed aberrant expression of key transcriptional regulators, including SKI, ERG, and ETO2. Ectopic expression of these factors in murine erythroid progenitors blocked in vitro erythroid differentiation and led to immortalization associated with decreased chromatin accessibility at GATA1 binding sites and functional interference with GATA1 activity. In vivo models showed development of lethal erythroid, mixed erythroid/myeloid or other malignancies depending on the cell population in which AEL-associated alterations were expressed. Collectively, our data indicates that AEL is a molecularly heterogeneous disease with an erythroid identity that results in part from the aberrant activity of key erythroid transcription factors in hematopoietic stem or progenitor cells.

Recommender systems constitute the core engine of most social network platforms nowadays, aiming to maximize user satisfaction along with other key business objectives. Twitter is no exception. Despite the fact that Twitter data has been extensively used to understand socioeconomic and political phenomena and user behaviour, the implicit feedback provided by users on Tweets through their engagements on the Home Timeline has only been explored to a limited extent. At the same time, there is a lack of large-scale public social network datasets that would enable the scientific community to both benchmark and build more powerful and comprehensive models that tailor content to user interests. By releasing an original dataset of 160 million Tweets along with engagement information, Twitter aims to address exactly that. During this release, special attention is drawn on maintaining compliance with existing privacy laws. Apart from user privacy, this paper touches on the key challenges faced by researchers and professionals striving to predict user engagements. It further describes the key aspects of the RecSys 2020 Challenge that was organized by ACM RecSys in partnership with Twitter using this dataset.

Recommender systems constitute the core engine of most social network platforms nowadays, aiming to maximize user satisfaction along with other key business objectives. Twitter is no exception. Despite the fact that Twitter data has been extensively used to understand socioeconomic and political phenomena and user behaviour, the implicit feedback provided by users on Tweets through their engagements on the Home Timeline has only been explored to a limited extent. At the same time, there is a lack of large-scale public social network datasets that would enable the scientific community to both benchmark and build more powerful and comprehensive models that tailor content to user interests. By releasing an original dataset of 160 million Tweets along with engagement information, Twitter aims to address exactly that. During this release, special attention is drawn on maintaining compliance with existing privacy laws. Apart from user privacy, this paper touches on the key challenges faced by researchers and professionals striving to predict user engagements. It further describes the key aspects of the RecSys 2020 Challenge that was organized by ACM RecSys in partnership with Twitter using this dataset.

Increasing redox reaction rates on carbon electrodes is an important step to reducing the cost of all-vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). Biomass-derived activated carbons (ACs) hold promise as ...

S-matrix theory is used in order to analyze the energy spectra of electron-atom potential scattering assisted by a bicircular (two-component circularly polarized) laser field having corotating field components. The double scattering (rescattering) is also included in the analysis by applying the second Born approximation in the expansion of the S-matrix element. We have investigated how the energy spectrum of scattered electrons is affected by the scattering angle. We have also analyzed the sensitivity of the energy spectrum to the relative phase and intensity ratio of the laser-field components. The calculated energy spectra are characterized by the plateau-like oscillatory structures with abrupt cutoffs. Positions of these cutoffs in the energy spectra are confirmed by a classical analysis. Rescattering effects can be observed in the calculated energy spectra for certain values of the scattering angle. These effects are represented by the second plateau in the energy spectrum. This is different from the process of above-threshold ionization/detachment by a bicircular laser field, where the (re)scattering effects in the photoelectron energy spectra cannot be observed in the case of corotating laser-field components.

This study presents a secret key sharing protocol that establishes cryptographically secured communication between two entities. A new symmetric key exchange scenario for smart city applications is presented in this research. The protocol is based on the specific properties of the Fuss-Catalan numbers and the Lattice Path combinatorics. The proposed scenario consists of three phases: generating a Fuss-Catalan object based on the grid dimension, defining the movement in the Lattice Path Grid and defining the key equalisation rules. In the experimental part, the authors present the security analysis of the protocol as well as its test. Also, they examine the equivalence of the proposed with Maurer's satellite scenario and suggest a new scenario that implements an information-theoretical protocol for the public key distribution. Additionally, a comparison with related studies and methods is provided, as well as a comparison with satellite scenario, which proves the advantages of solution presented by the authors. Finally, they propose further research directions regarding key management in smart city applications.

The role of women in society every day is growing. Women achieve significant business outcomes, along with men, although their efforts are often not evaluated in the same way. Despite their extraordinary commitment to the jobs they perform, women still find themselves in the so-called "glass ceiling" - barriers that prevent them from progressing to better careers and to be equally valued and paid as men. Nowadays, there is a great desire and engagement of all layers of society and the state to change that situation so that women can prove their abilities in the most responsible positions, both in companies and public sectors as well. This paper starts from the fact that there is no favoring of men in relation to women in management positions in the state administration in Serbia, and that the main preconditions for someone to perform these functions are knowledge, education and work experience.

Since the development of the original Support Intensity Scale—Adult Version (SIS-A) and the Support Intensity Scale—Child Version (SIS-C), the interest in supporting people with intellectual disabilities (ID) has changed. Resource allocation, better quality of resource utilization in the rehabilitation process, the development of support systems, and redefining the roles of organizations that support people with ID are just some of the changes. The aim of this study was to determine the factor structure of the SIS-C conducted on a sample of Bosnian–Herzegovinian (B&H) children (SISC B&H). The study included 377 children ID in B&H, aged 5-16. The data was analyzed with the SPSS 21 software (with the AMOS package). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the SIS-C. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to determine the factor and constructive validity of SIS-C B&H. The CFA results indicated a poor fit of both the theoretical and empirical models even after modifications were made. The EFA showed the opposite results. This could be explained by the fact that within the factor solutions obtained from the EFA, various aslope or orthogonal models, linear or hierarchical, can be constructed. Among these models, some exhibited good fit to the data. Thus, data from the current study could be used to generate new hypotheses and deliver more conclusive answers.