Abstract The purpose of this study is to assess the technical (output) and functional (process) quality of mobile services, as well as the role of corporate image as a mediator between technical/functional quality perceptions and overall quality assessment of mobile services. Grönroos’s service quality model is used as the conceptual base of the study. Technical quality was operationalized through two sub-dimensions: baseline network quality and augmented technical quality. The SERVPERF framework was used in the operationalization of the functional quality. A quantitative survey was conducted with (n = 414) customers of the telecommunication operator in B&H. The results suggest that corporate image mediates the effects of (1) two functional quality dimensions (tangibles and assurance) and (2) both technical quality dimensions on the overall service quality assessment. The core technical quality dimension (network) is also directly related to overall service quality perception. A discussion of the results and their implications for theory and practice is then presented.

Objective: Tobacco cigarette smoking is one of the major leading causes of death throughout the world. Smoking has both acute and chronic effect on haematological parameters. The aim of the present study was to assess the extent of adverse effects of cigarette smoking on biochemical characteristics in healthy smokers. Subjects and Method: One hundred and fifty six subjects participated in this study, 56 smokers and 100 non-smokers. The smokers were regularly consuming 10-20 cigarettes per day for at least 3 years. Complete blood cell count was analyzed by CELL-DYN 3700 fully automatic haematological analyzer. Results: The smokers had significantly higher levels of white blood cell (p<0,001), hemoglobin (p=0,042), mean corpuscular volume (p=0,001) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (p<0,001). All other measured parameters did not differ significantly. Cigarette smoking caused a significant increase (p<0,001) in red blood cells, white blood cells (p=0,040), hemoglobin (p<0,001), hematocrit (p=0,047) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (p<0,001) in males in comparison to female smokers. Conclusion: In conclusion, our study showed that continuous cigarette smoking has severe adverse effects on haematological parameters (e.g., hemoglobin, white blood cells count, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, red blood cells count, hematocrit) and these alterations might be associated with a greater risk for developing atherosclerosis, polycythemia vera, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and/or cardiovascular diseases.

The prevalence of smoking among Croatian adolescents is alarmingly high, but no previous study has prospectively examined the sport- and academic-factors associated with smoking and smoking initiation. This study aimed to prospectively examine the associations between scholastic (educational) achievement and sport factors and smoking in 16- to 18-year-old adolescents. This two-year prospective cohort study included 644 adolescents who were 16 years of age at baseline (46% females). Baseline testing was implemented at the beginning of the 3rd year of high school (September 2014) when participants were 16 years old. Follow-up testing was completed at the end of the fourth year of high school, which occurred 20 months later. The evaluated predictor variables were educational-achievement- and sport-related-factors. The outcome variables were (i) smoking at baseline; (ii) smoking at follow-up; and (iii) smoking initiation over the course of the study. We assessed the associations between predictors and outcomes using logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, socioeconomic status, and conflict with parents. The educational variables were consistently associated with smoking, with lower grade-point-average (Baseline: odd ratio (OR): 2.01, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.61–2.55; Follow-up: 1.59, 1.31–1.94), more frequent absence from school (Baseline: OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.19–1.69; Follow-up: 1.30, 1.08–1.58), and lower behavioral grades (Baseline: OR: 1.80, 95% CI: 1.10–2.89; Follow-up: 1.57, 1.03–2.41) in children who smoke. Adolescents who reported quitting sports were at greater odds of being smokers (Baseline: 2.07, 1.31–3.32; Follow-up: 1.66, 1.09–2.56). Sport competitive achievement at baseline was protective against smoking initiation during following two-year period (0.45, 0.21–0.91). While the influence of the educational variables on smoking initiation has been found to be established earlier; sport achievement was identified as a significant protective factor against initiating smoking in older adolescents. Results should be used in development of an anti-smoking preventive campaign in older adolescents.

Abstract To avoid motion artefacts when merging multiple exposures into a high dynamic range image, a number of HDR deghosting algorithms have been proposed. However, these algorithms do not work equally well on all types of scenes, and some may even introduce additional artefacts. As the number of proposed deghosting methods is increasing rapidly, there is an immediate need to evaluate them and compare their results. Even though subjective methods of evaluation provide reliable means of testing, they are often cumbersome and need to be repeated for each new proposed method or even its slight modification. Because of that, there is a need for objective quality metrics that will provide automatic means of evaluation of HDR deghosting algorithms. In this work, we explore several computational approaches of quantitative evaluation of multi-exposure HDR deghosting algorithms and demonstrate their results on five state-of-the-art algorithms. In order to perform a comprehensive evaluation, a new dataset consisting of 36 scenes has been created, where each scene provides a different challenge for a deghosting algorithm. The quality of HDR images produced by deghosting method is measured in a subjective experiment and then evaluated using objective metrics. As this paper is an extension of our conference paper, we add one more objective quality metric, UDQM, as an additional metric in the evaluation. Furthermore, analysis of objective and subjective experiments is performed and explained more extensively in this work. By testing correlation between objective metric and subjective scores, the results show that from the tested metrics, that HDR-VDP-2 is the most reliable metric for evaluating HDR deghosting algorithms. The results also show that for most of the tested scenes, Sen et al.’s deghosting method outperforms other evaluated deghosting methods. The observations based on the obtained results can be used as a vital guide in the development of new HDR deghosting algorithms, which would be robust to a variety of scenes and could produce high quality results.

1Travnik General Hospital, Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2Clinical Center University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina KeYWORdS: patent foramen ovale, management. citAtiON: Cardiol Croat. 2019;14(3-4):92-3. | https://doi.org/10.15836/ccar2019.92 *AddReSS FOR cORReSPONdeNce: Alma Sijamija, J.U. Bolnica Travnik, Kalibunar bb, 72270 Travnik, Bosna and Herzegovina. / Phone: +387-61-780-085 / E-mail: alma.sijamija@hotmail.com ORcid: Alma Sijamija, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2818-0501 • Nermir Granov, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6228-6230 Alma Agačević, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4671-0991 • Omer Perva, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2645-1558 Nedžad Hadžić, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7186-7803

ABSTRACT Emergency contraception (EC) in Serbia is available in two products: Levonorgestel, which has nonprescription status, and Ulipristal acetate, which is a prescription-only medicine. Considering their dispensing statuses, gynecologists and pharmacists are health care professionals (HCPs) with the widest impact on EC use. Yet little is known about their beliefs and practices regarding these medicines. We surveyed 166 gynecologists (during October 2012—October 2013) and 452 community pharmacists (during January–April 2014). Results showed significant differences between these two groups, suggesting that provision of EC to users may be inconsistent. Gynecologists were more convinced than pharmacists that EC would reduce the abortion rate (86% versus 53%, p < .001). However, they were more concerned than pharmacists that easy access to EC would cause less regular contraceptive use (66% versus 29%, p < .001) and risky sexual behaviors, including initiating sexual activity at a younger age (37% versus 19%, p < .001) and having more sexual partners (33% versus 12%, p < .001). Additionally, more pharmacists than gynecologists (12% versus 2%, p < .001) said they would not provide EC to anyone under any circumstance, even to victims of sexual assault. These results indicated a need for reevaluating and establishing official guidelines for dispensing practices.

Introduction: Serum uric acid (SUA) is the final product of purine metabolism in humans. Aim: The present study aimed to identify a potential association between serum UA and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) levels and to find out whether uric acid could differentiate patients presenting with the acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and unstable angina pectoris (UAP) in hyperuricemic and normouricemic acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. Methods: Eighty ACS patients, aged 50-83 years, were enrolled in the study, 40 of them presenting with AMI and 40 with UAP. Frequency of patients with serum uric level over threshold for hyperuricemia was investigated and two groups of patients were formed such as hyperuricemic and normouricemic groups (A and B groups, respectively) independently of type of ACS. Those groups of patients were also subjected to cTnI measurement. Results: Levels of SUA are associated with the type of ACS in the hyperuricemic ACS patients (AMI versus UAP, 499(458-590), 425(400-447) mmol/L, p=0.007, respectively). Uric acid correlated significantly with cTnI, moderate positively in the group A (rho=0.358, p=0.038) and moderate negatively in the group B (r=-0.309, p=0.037) of ACS patients. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that cTnI and age were independently associated with the SUA levels in the group A of ACS patients. Conclusions: Serum uric acid differentiates AIM and UAP patients in hyperuricemic group of acute coronary syndrome. Therefore it can be used as nonspecific parameter for evaluation of the myocardial lesion extent only in hyperuricemic ACS patients. This is supported by finding that cTnI along with age predicts SUA level in hyperuricemic ACS patients.

It was aimed to report the experience of actions of education in service of Infection Control Committee in intention to sensitize the multiprofissional healthcare team about the adoption of safe hand hygiene practices according to the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency. Thus, was developed a hand hygiene intervention in adult Intensive Care Unit. The importance of hand hygiene practice for prevention and control health care-associated infections and professional training are discussed. In this context, posters and pamphlets of Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency aiming better practices designed to patient safety were used with the purpose of fostering to health education and in order to awaken interest in the public to develop and/or to remain with the safety patient practice. It was considered there must be discussion about the subject by professionals to overcome challenges. Educational actions are an important tool for directing actions aimed at developing improvements in health care.

Factor analysis is one of multivariate data processing methods, which studies the causal relationships of phenomena, that is, the cause of integration. In the introductory part of the paper, the basic definitions and interpretations regarding the factor analysis and the terms of multivariate methods, and some examples have been given in defining the manifest and latent, as explorative and confirmative examples. The justification for the application of factor analysis is elaborated in the main part of the paper with reference to the various authors who have dealt with this issue. Also, the paper presents the procedures of factor analysis, and presents tables and graphs showing the results necessary for interpretation. Given that for special education and rehabilitation a biopsychosocial approach is fundamental, factor analysis can be a powerful tool when studying interconnections of different phenomena. Its proper application by educatorsrehabilitators, who act to this problem, may help in understanding the causes of connections of phenomena, and as such it helps in the development of a treatment for the prevention, education and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.