Basal ganglia calcifications 2/12 (16.7%) Elevated IFN Score 17/17 (100%)* Short stature 15/24 (62.5%) O001 Clinical features and outcomes in sting-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI) S. Torreggiani, A. Almeida de Jesus, S. Alehashemi, J. Mitchell, G. Souto Adeva, J. Wade, G. A. Montealegre Sanchez, B. Lin, R. Goldbach-Mansky, on behalf of SAVI Study Group TADS/NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, United States; Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Correspondence: S. Torreggiani Pediatric Rheumatology 2020, 18(Suppl 2):O001

Chemical precipitation is a useful conventional process to remove heavy metals from aqueous solutions. In this work, a waste sludge from the Solway process was used as a precipitation agent for the precipitation of Cu (II), Ni (II), Pb (II) and Zn (II) ions with an initial concentration of 50 mg/L. The results of the research showed that the waste sludge from the Solway process completely removed Pb (II) ions from the solution in the pH range of 8.39 -11.74, also good efficiency was shown in other cations. The maximum precipitation efficiency for Cu (II) is 99.890% at pH 10.98, Ni (II) 99.940% at pH 11.81, Zn (II) 99.616% at 10.1. Waste sludge is proved to be a good precipitate for cation separation.

Background: In the present study, the main goal was to establish whether the disciplines are equal and should the Code of Points (COP) women's artistic gymnastics be revised in terms of point standardization on apparatus. Material and methods: The sample included all-around senior female gymnasts who participated in the qualification (C-I) competitions at World Championships held in 2009-2019. Results: The biggest differences are even two points between the two apparatus vault and balance beam. Vault compared to other apparatus is different for 1.559 points. Presentation of correlations between each apparatus the evidence that nothing has changed significantly in recent years, whereas correlations of the difficulty values of elements are extremely high between the present COP. Conclusions: With this analysis, we have found that the results achieved at the vault and other apparatus were significantly different in terms of success in all-around competition.

Increasing evidence suggests that apoptosis of tubular cells and renal inflammation mainly determine the outcome of sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (AKI). The study aim was to investigate the molecular mechanism involved in the renoprotective effects of simvastatin in endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LSP)-induced AKI. A sepsis model was established by intraperitoneal injection of a single non-lethal LPS dose after short-term simvastatin pretreatment. The severity of the inflammatory injury was expressed as renal damage scores (RDS). Apoptosis of tubular cells was detected by Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP Nick End Labeling (TUNEL assay) (apoptotic DNA fragmentation, expressed as an apoptotic index, AI) and immunohistochemical staining for cleaved caspase-3, cytochrome C, and anti-apoptotic Bcl-xL and survivin. We found that endotoxin induced severe renal inflammatory injury (RDS = 3.58 ± 0.50), whereas simvastatin dose-dependently prevented structural changes induced by LPS. Furthermore, simvastatin 40 mg/kg most profoundly attenuated tubular apoptosis, determined as a decrease of cytochrome C, caspase-3 expression, and AIs (p  <  0.01 vs. LPS). Conversely, simvastatin induced a significant increase of Bcl-XL and survivin, both in the strong inverse correlations with cleaved caspase-3 and cytochrome C. Our study indicates that simvastatin has cytoprotective effects against LPS-induced tubular apoptosis, seemingly mediated by upregulation of cell-survival molecules, such as Bcl-XL and survivin, and inhibition of the mitochondrial cytochrome C and downstream caspase-3 activation.

INTRODUCTION This survey aims to assess knowledge, attitude and stigma towards HIV patients, among medical students in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We also aimed to assess potential risk factors for HIV infection among fourth year medical students. METHODOLOGY Data were collected from specific questionnaire that was completed by 171 students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Tuzla. A multivariable logistic regression was performed. RESULTS Majority of students (79%) had a good knowledge of HIV, (median value of correct answers was 9 (95%) with at least 6 correct responses). Also, majority of students (73.6%) had a positive attitude towards HIV patients and the median positive value was 6 (95% CI: 6-7). More than a third of students considered that all hospitalized patients should be tested for HIV. Total of 81% of students considered that they should inform the sexual partner of HIV positive patient, although she/he disagrees. 61.4% of students had a discriminatory attitude towards HIV, with the median values of 3 (95% CI: 3-3). Multivariate regression analysis identified positive attitude towards HIV patients as an independent predictor for a non-discriminatory attitude. Moreover, an overall attitude towards HIV patients defines student`s determination to work with AIDS population. Male gender, and older age, were identified as predictors of risky behavior. CONCLUSIONS Preventive measures, including better HIV education, are crucial. Knowledge can increase awareness of HIV infection, decrease the incidence and reduce stigma towards HIV patients.

This pilot trial reports the effects of L-carnosine administration on autonomic nervous system performance, brain metabolism, and various patient- and clinician-reported outcomes in a case series of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We hypothesized that medium-term L-carnosine supplementation would improve selected patient- and clinician-reported outcomes in MS patients, with no negative effects on self-reported side effects. L-carnosine (2 g/day) was administered orally for 8 weeks in 2 women and one man suffering from MS. The intensity of symptoms and signs of MS after L-carnosine administration diminished in 5 out of 7 domains in CASE 1, in 3 out of 7 domains in CASE 2, and one domain in CASE 3; general fatigue was reduced in all 3 cases at the follow-up. This was accompanied by an improved walking distance to exhaustion in all patients, with values improved for 51.1% in CASE 1, 19.5% in CASE 2, and 2.1% in CASE 3 at 8-week follow-up. Tests of autonomic cardiovascular reflexes demonstrate normalized parasympathetic modulation and balanced sympathetic function after L-carnosine intervention in all MS cases. An increase in serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was found at 8-week follow-up in all patients (from 4.6 to 49.6%); this was accompanied by lower blood lactate at post-administration in all cases (23.5% on average). Single-voxel 1.5 T MR spectroscopy revealed increased brain choline-contained compounds (18.9% on average), total creatine (21.2%), and myo-inositol levels (12.3%) in girus cinguli at 8-week follow-up in all MS cases. This case study demonstrates that an 8-week intervention with L-carnosine appears to be a safe and beneficial therapeutic strategy with regard to the reduction of presence and severity of symptoms of MS.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is a globally recognized cause of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The aim of our cross-sectional study, conducted in a Serbian tertiary care hospital, was to investigate clinical characteristics of HAIs caused by the PA, the prevalence of various drug-resistant phenotypes of this pathogen, and risk factors for their occurrence. Prolonged ICU stay and previous carbapenem administration were independent risk factors for HAIs caused by carbapenem-resistant PA, while HAIs caused by multidrug-resistant PA were more frequent in patients with prolonged stay in an ICU, who were previously hospitalized at another department and previously treated with aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones or glycopeptides. The prolonged ICU stay was the only significant risk factor for HAIs caused by extensively drug-resistant PA. To decrease the incidence of HAIs caused by drug-resistant PA, a multifaceted approach is necessary, including staff education, antibiotic stewardship, improving hygiene, shortening hospitalization, and minimizing exposure to invasive medical procedures/devices.

In accordance with the advancement in robotics and the scholarly literature, the extents of utilizing robots for autistic children are widened and could be a promising method for individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) treatments, where the different form of robot (humanoid, non-humanoid, animal-like, toy, and kits) can be employed effectively as a support tool to augment the learning skills and rehabilitate of the individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Thus, the robots were exploited for ASD children in different aspects namely; modelling, teaching, and skills practicing; testing, highlighting and evaluating; providing feedback or encouragement; join Attention; eliciting social behaviours; emotion recognition and expression; imitation; vocalization; turn-taking; and diagnostic. The related literature published recently in journals and conferences is taken into account. In this paper, we review the use of robots that help in the therapy of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The articles on using robots for autistic children rehabilitation and education which reported results of experiments on a number of participants were implicated. After looking in digital libraries under this criteria, and excluding non-related, and duplicated studies, 39 studies have been found. The findings were focused mainly on the social communication skills of autistic children and how the extent of the robots mitigate their stereotyped behaviours. Deeper research is required in this area to cover all applications of robotic on autistic children in order to design feasible and low-cost robots that ensure provide high validity.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the addition of different amounts of organic selenium (ALKOSEL® R397) in concentrate mixtures on the selenium content in the blood plasma and feces of ducks. The experiment was performed on 240 one-day-old ducklings (Cherry Valley) which were freely selected into 4 groups, one control K0 group, and three experimental K1, K2 and K3 groups. In two phases of feeding in fattening, ducklings were fed with two and nutritionally different concentrate feed mixtures: starter (from 1 to 14 days) and finisher (from 15 to 49 days of fattening). The control group of ducklings (K0) during feeding received food without added organic selenium in both phases of fattening. In both phases of fattening, the experimental group of ducks K1 was fed with food as well as the control group, but with the addition of 0.2 mg/kg of organic selenium, while the experimental group K2 used food with 0.4 mg/kg, and the experimental group K3 with 0.6 mg/kg of organic selenium. The addition of organic selenium to duck feed had the effect of increasing selenium content in both blood plasma and duck feces. The highest content of selenium in blood plasma and feces was determined in the group of ducks that received the highest amount of organic selenium through food during the entire experiment.

We consider the problem of approximating maximum Nash social welfare (NSW) while allocating a set of indivisible items to n agents. The NSW is a popular objective that provides a balanced tradeoff between the often conflicting requirements of fairness and efficiency, defined as the weighted geometric mean of the agents’ valuations. For the symmetric additive case of the problem, where agents have the same weight with additive valuations, the first constant-factor approximation algorithm was obtained in 2015. Subsequent work has obtained constant-factor approximation algorithms for the symmetric case under mild generalizations of additive, and O(n)-approximation algorithms for subadditive valuations and for the asymmetric case. In this paper, we make significant progress towards both symmetric and asymmetric NSW problems. We present the first constant-factor approximation algorithm for the symmetric case under Rado valuations. Rado valuations form a general class of valuation functions that arise from maximum cost independent matching problems, including as special cases assignment (OXS) valuations and weighted matroid rank functions. Furthermore, our approach also gives the first constant-factor approximation algorithm for the asymmetric case under Rado valuations, provided that the maximum ratio between the weights is bounded by a constant.

Determination of multiphase flow inside PC boiler plant is of particular importance for the process control of the boiler and its efficient operation. Nowadays numerical modeling is used as an advanced tool in improvement of this or similar process. Separation of coal particle in aero-mixture channel, after pulverization, represent an important process which has a big effect on boiler efficiency, and its determination represents an important step. In this paper, numerical modeling of multiphase flow inside aero-mixture channel and low emission burner of boiler OB-650 are exposed in several steps from 3D modeling, discretization of fluid domain, setting the physical and mathematical model to validation of same model. Main goals of the same process is to obtain valid numerical model of observed problematic, that will give us data about model parameters that can be used for modeling of the same process with different inlet boundary conditions, and also to obtain appropriate specific process parameters that can be used for rising of level of efficiency and utility of boiler plant in some steady operating modes.

Abstract The aim of this study was to assess contamination and potential human health risks of heavy metals in street dust from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H). In total, 117 street dust samples were analyzed for Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). Health risk assessment was applied to determine potential health risks, non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks, in children and adults. According to mass concentrations of studied trace metals, the dust samples were arranged as the following diminishing series: industrial zone > high traffic streets > streets with moderate traffic > parking place > parks, school yards, sports facilities, medical facilities. Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn mean concentrations are 3.18, 33.17, 30.01, 3150, 236, 73.00, 52.49 and 81.72 mg/kg, respectively. In order to identify possible metals sources correlation analysis was applied. Strong correlations between Cd-Mn, Fe-Mn, Ni-Cr, and Cr-Fe were obtained, suggesting a common dependence or source of these metals in street dust in FB&H. Contributor that most impact the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk is the ingestion route for both, children and adults, followed by the dermal and inhalation pathways. The risk assessment shows that the population of FB&H is at increased lifetime risk of experiencing cancer because of exposure to Cr and Pb concentrations in street dust of FB&H.