Introduction: Preterm delivery remains a burning issue all over the world, especially in Serbia because of the rate of negative natural increase. IL-6 can stimulate the release of prostaglandins and cause premature contractions and premature labor. Aim of the Study: The aim of this research is to examine the importance of infection in the occurrence of premature contractions and to examine whether the preterm labor is associated with increased concentrations of IL-6 in patients with intact fetal membranes. Patients and Methods: We examined 83 pregnant women. The age range was between 15 and 43 years. The experimental group had 53 pregnant women and a control group was consisted of 30 pregnant women. All pregnant women had singleton pregnancies. The age of pregnancy in both groups was between the 21st and 35th week of gestation. The experimental group was divided into three groups according to the localization of infection: bacterial vaginosis, an infection of the cervix and urinary tract infections. The laboratory identification of IL-6 was performed as a double sandwich ELISA method. The reagents used for the identification of IL-6 were manufactured by Beckman-Coulter and were strictly intended for the research. Results: There were 34 pregnant women or 64% with infection of the cervix, 26 pregnant women or 49% had a positive urine culture, while bacterial vaginosis was present in 47 pregnant women or 89%. A positive finding on all localization was found in 14 pregnant women or 26%. In the experimental group, IL-6 was detected in 37 pregnant women or 70%. The mean value of IL-6 proven in the experimental group was 20.6 pg/ml (SD=18.2, n=53). Conclusion: This research demonstrated a direct link between a bacterial infection and preterm delivery. IL-6 can be used as a serological marker of bacterial infection and preterm delivery.

Introduction: Malignant cells invasion of lymphatic drainage represents the basic precondition of metastasis and the disease progress. The invasion of tumor depends on its pathomorphologic characteristics, out of which one of the most significant role is the type. Aim of the Study: Descriptive analysis of operated patients, estimation of frequency and representativeness of the stated types of NSCLC in the monitored group, analysis of malignant cells of lung cancer in lymphatic drainage on the basis of the type of primary tumor. Patients and Methods: The study included 331 patients, who underwent the surgery during which the malignant infiltration was removed, in addition to the dissection of lymph nodes drainage. Results: Out of the total number of operated patients, 257 of them were male gender, while 74 were female gender, with the average age of 63.52 years (21-80). The relation of gender structure of the patients in relation to gender was statistically significant (p=0.00). The ratio between squamous cell carcinoma to adenocarcinoma was 182:140, while the other types of tumor were insignificant. Statistically, there was no significant difference in the frequency of two most common types of lung cancer (χ2test= 3.02; p=0.09). There was no statistically significant connection between the type of tumor and N1 metastasis (χ2=1.55; p=0.46), as well as in the ratio between the type of tumor and malignant infiltration of lymph nodes, level N2 (χ2=2.33; p=0.32). Conclusion: There is no connection between the type of lung cancer and invasion of levels N1 and N2 of lymph nodes.

Machine-type communications and large-scale information processing architectures are among key (r)evolutionary enhancements of emerging fifth-generation (5G) mobile cellular networks. Massive data acquisition and processing will make 5G network an ideal platform for large-scale system monitoring and control with applications in future smart infrastructures. In this work, we investigate a capability of such a 5G network architecture to provide the state estimate of an underlying linear system from the input obtained via large-scale deployment of measurement devices. Assuming that the measurements are communicated via densely deployed cloud radio access network (C-RAN), we formulate and solve the problem of estimating the system state from the set of signals collected at C-RAN base stations. Our solution, based on the Gaussian Belief-Propagation (GBP) framework, allows for large-scale and distributed deployment within the emerging 5G information processing architectures. The presented numerical study demonstrates the accuracy, convergence behavior and scalability of the proposed GBP-based solution to the large-scale state estimation problem.

Breast cancer risk is influenced by rare coding variants in susceptibility genes, such as BRCA1, and many common, mostly non-coding variants. However, much of the genetic contribution to breast cancer risk remains unknown. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study of breast cancer in 122,977 cases and 105,974 controls of European ancestry and 14,068 cases and 13,104 controls of East Asian ancestry. We identified 65 new loci that are associated with overall breast cancer risk at P < 5 × 10−8. The majority of credible risk single-nucleotide polymorphisms in these loci fall in distal regulatory elements, and by integrating in silico data to predict target genes in breast cells at each locus, we demonstrate a strong overlap between candidate target genes and somatic driver genes in breast tumours. We also find that heritability of breast cancer due to all single-nucleotide polymorphisms in regulatory features was 2–5-fold enriched relative to the genome-wide average, with strong enrichment for particular transcription factor binding sites. These results provide further insight into genetic susceptibility to breast cancer and will improve the use of genetic risk scores for individualized screening and prevention.

LHCb experiment at CERN has recently reported a set of measurements on lepton flavour universality in $b \to s$ transitions showing a departure from the Standard Model predictions. I will review the main ideas recently put forward to make sense out of these intriguing hints. Focusing on the new physics explanation, I will discuss the correlated signals expected in other low- and high-energy observables, that could help clarify the mysterious anomalies.

The Tactile Internet presently constitutes a vision of an Internet over which, in addition to current communications modalities, a sense of touch can be transported. In that case, people would no longer need to be physically near the systems they operate, but could control them remotely. The main problem that needs to be solved to realize the Tactile Internet is summarized by the “1 ms challenge.” If the response time of a system is below 1 ms, the end-user will not be able to tell the difference between controlling a system locally or from another location. This paper offers a summary of the requirements for haptic communications, followed by an overview of challenges in realizing the Tactile Internet. In addition, possible solutions to these challenges are proposed and discussed. For example, the development of the fifth generation mobile communication networks will provide a good foundation upon which a Tactile Internet could be built. This paper also describes the design of a modular testbed needed for testing of a wide variety of haptic system applications.