Aim: Nosocomial infections (NIs) represent a major public health problem in developed, and even more in developing countries. Based on the origin of the pathogen, NIs are divided into endogenous caused by microorganisms of the patient’s microflora, and exogenous caused by pathogens from the patient’s environment or by the same microorganism isolated elsewhere from patient’s body. The main aim of this research was to determine the frequency, etiology and types of NIs at the Clinic for Surgery of the University Clinical Center Tuzla. Material and Methods: 5.039 patients were prospectively followed for the development of endogenous and exogenous NIs (January-December 2015). The definition of NI was performed using standardized the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) criteria. Results: Based on continuous epidemiological surveillance, the incidence of NI was 3.51%; with a total of 177 registered infections, 24 endogenous and 153 exogenous. The most common NIs were urinary tract infections (UTIs) (14.29% endogenous and 85.71% exogenous) and surgical site infections (SSIs) (16.67% endogenous and 83.33% exogenous), p<0.001. Gram-negative bacteria were predominant (76.84%) over Gram-positive bacteria (23.16%). Gram-positive bacteria mainly caused bacteremia, while Gram-negative bacteria were most commonly isolated from UTIs and SSIs. The most common Gram-negative bacteria were Klebsiella pneumoniae (24.86%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (22.6%), and among Gram-positive, Staphylococcus aureus (10.73%) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (7.91%). Conclusion: Epidemiological surveillance is considered a key link in the program for the prevention and control of NIs. The most important, and the ultimate goal and purpose of conducting epidemiological surveillance are to reduce and eliminate the risk factors, which can lead to a reduction in NI incidence rate. Determining the endemic rates of NIs provides an objective understanding of the overall NI status in an institution as well as existing risk factors for the occurrence of these infections.

Generated power of thermal power plant is closely related to efficient work of cooling towers, via condenser pressure affected by output temperature of cooling water. Performance characteristics of cooling system can be rated via several parameters such as: thermal effectiveness, Merkel number, number of transfer units, and overall heat and mass transfer coefficient. Results gathered during acceptance test of cooling system of thermal power plant Kakanj (unit 7) which consists of 12 wet counterflow induced draft cooling towers, are used to evaluate its most important performance characteristics. It is shown that some tower performance characteristic vary during the day more than others due to their dependence on climatic parameters, particularly air wet bulb temperature. Different approaches and methods (analytical and empirical) for evaluation of tower performance are discussed in order to define the most appropriate performance characteristic and calculation method which can be used for establishing the optimal working mode of analysed cooling system.

Abstract In this chapter, we present a new method of steganography using decomposition of Catalan numbers. The proposed steganographic method consists of two segments: the first segment refers to the process of embedding data and generation of a complex stego key, whereas the second segment refers to the process of extracting a hidden message based on the generated stego key. Both segments consist of several phases. The proposed method provides that the data carrier retains its original shape. At the end of the chapter, security testing and steganalysis of the proposed method are conducted. Implementation in Java programming language successfully proves the work of the proposed method.

The goal of psychometric scaling is the quantification of perceptual experiences, understanding the relationship between an external stimulus, the internal representation and the response. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic framework to fuse the outcome of different psychophysical experimental protocols, namely rating and pairwise comparisons experiments. Such a method can be used for merging existing datasets of subjective nature and for experiments in which both measurements are collected. We analyze and compare the outcomes of both types of experimental protocols in terms of time and accuracy in a set of simulations and experiments with benchmark and real-world image quality assessment datasets, showing the necessity of scaling and the advantages of each protocol and mixing. Although most of our examples focus on image quality assessment, our findings generalize to any other subjective quality-of-experience task.

Metabolic derangements in Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) are associated primarily with the carbohydrate and lipid levels disturbances. Increased flow of free fatty acids (FFAs) into the blood that is coming from the adipocytes as well as an elevated flux of FFAs from de novo lipid synthesis in the liver contribute to these metabolic disturbances. Previous studies suggested a strong association of the hepatic activity of certain enzymes, such as aspartate and alanine transferase (AST, ALT), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) with the progression of T2D. In this study, the potential association of the hepatic activities of the liver enzymes and FFAs levels in T2D was examined. Analysis of the activities of ALT, AST, GGT and AP, as well levels of FFAs, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and lipid profile was performed in 40 healthy control and 71 diabetic subjects. All participants were free of hepatitis, viral infections or active liver damage. The results showed a positive association between levels of palmitic and oleic acids with ALT activity (p<0.05), while the activity of GGT was significantly associated with the levels of palmitic, stearic, and oleic fatty acids (p<0.01). Interestingly, in control group, a positive correlation was found between palmitoleic acid levels with ALT activity (p<0.05), and a negative correlation palmitoleic acid with ALP activity (p<0.05) was observed. Obtained data suggest that an elevation of free fatty acid levels and the hepatic fat accumulation in insulin-resistant conditions affect the hepatic enzymes activities, which might contribute further to the progression of Type 2 diabetes and its complications.