The main indicators of hygienic quality of milk are the total bacterial count and the somatic cell count. The objective of this paper was to investigate the changes in the hygienic quality of milk due to implementation of the new system of milk payment in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period of 2010-2013 as well as to determine the impact of season on hygienic quality of milk. The bulk milk samples were collected from milk producers from the whole area of Bosnia and Herzegovina who submit its milk to dairy industry. It was collected 53 363 milk samples which were analysed for the somatic cell count (SCC) and 52 999 milk samples for the total bacterial count(TBC). The results of research showed that the proportion of redeemed milk with the number of somatic cells lesser than 300 000/mL was significantly increased, as well as the proportion of milk producers who produce milk of EU quality (P<0.05). The season had a significant effect (P<0.05) on the SCC. Thus, in spring (April) the proportion of milk with the number of SC < 300 000/mL was significantly the highest (P<0.05) while the proportion of such milk in the autumn period was significantly lower (P<0.05). Significant linear increase (P<0.05) of the proportion of redeemed milk with the TBC < 200 000/mL was perceived. The change in the system of milk payment in Bosnia and Herzegovina resulted with significantly (P<0.05) increased proportion of producers who submit that’s kind of milk. Significantly lower proportion of milk in summer period with TBC < 200 000/mL was determined. It can be concluded that consistent appliance of existing regulations which determine the quality of milk, based on EU standards, leads to the improvement of hygienic quality of redeemed milk, as illustrated by the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In recent years, formidable effort has been devoted to exploring the potential of Resistive RAM (RRAM) devices to model key features of biological synapses. This is done to strengthen the link between neuro-computing architectures and neuroscience, bearing in mind the extremely low power consumption and immense parallelism of biological systems. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of using the RRAM cell to go further and to model aspects of the electrical activity of the neuron. We focus on the specific operational procedures required for the generation of controlled voltage transients, which resemble spike-like responses. Further, we demonstrate that RRAM devices are capable of integrating input current pulses over time to produce thresholded voltage transients. We show that the frequency of the output transients can be controlled by the input signal, and we relate recent models of the redox-based nanoionic resistive memory cell to two common neuronal models, the Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) conductance model and the leaky integrate-and-fire model. We employ a simplified circuit model to phenomenologically describe voltage transient generation.

To the Editor A 65-year-old woman with a positive family history for breast cancer presented with the palpable mass in the upper outer quadrant of the left breast. Ultrasonography and mammography revealed an oval, hypoechogenic, sharply demarcated mass, measuring 23 9 14 mm, classified as Bi-RADS 4 (Fig. 1A). A core needle biopsy revealed a cellular spindle cell lesion (AE1/AE3 negative) without prominent atypia and mitotic activity (B3 category, Fig. 1B). The multidisciplinary breast meeting discussed the case and recommended a wide local excision of the mass. Grossly, the 20-mm tumor was well-circumscribed, grayish-white on cut section, without necrosis and hemorrhage (Fig. 1C). Histopathologic examination revealed a well circumscribed, spindle cell neoplasm composed of the cells with mild to moderate atypia and sporadic mitotic activity (up to 5/10 hpf mitotic figures, Fig. 1D,E). An extensive immunohistochemical (IHC) examination revealed only convincing S-100 positivity in about 20% of neoplastic cells (Fig. 1F). All other markers were negative (AE1/AE3, Cam5.2, p63, GFAP, SMA, desmin, CD34, HMB-45, SOX-10) while beta-catenin retained cytoplasmic/membranous expression without nuclear positivity. Morphologic and immunohistochemical findings were consistent with a low-grade malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST). Due to the tumor size, clean margins, and the tumor grade, a close follow-up without further treatment of the patient was recommended (1–3). Additional clinical

Abstract Patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCCs) have a better prognosis than patients with non-HPV-induced OPSCC. The role of the immune response in this phenomenon is yet unclear. We studied the number of T cells, regulatory T cells (Tregs), T helper 17 (Th17) cells and IL-17+ non-T cells (mainly granulocytes) in matched HPV-positive and HPV-negative OPSCC cases (n = 162). Furthermore, the production of IFN-γ and IL-17 by tumor-infiltrating T cells was analyzed. The number of tumor-infiltrating T cells and Tregs was higher in HPV-positive than HPV-negative OPSCC (p < 0.0001). In contrast, HPV-negative OPSCC contained significantly higher numbers of IL-17+ non-T cells (p < 0.0001). Although a high number of intra-tumoral T cells showed a trend toward improved survival of all OPSCC patients, their prognostic effect in patients with a low number of intra-tumoral IL-17+ non-T cells was significant with regard to disease-specific (p = 0.033) and disease-free survival (p = 0.012). This suggests that a high frequency of IL-17+ non-T cells was related to a poor immune response, which was further supported by the observation that a high number of T cells was correlated with improved disease-free survival in the HPV-positive OPSCC (p = 0.008). In addition, we detected a minor Th17 cell population. However, T cells obtained from HPV-positive OPSCC produced significantly more IL-17 than those from HPV-negative tumors (p = 0.006). The improved prognosis of HPV-positive OPSCC is thus correlated with higher numbers of tumor-infiltrating T cells, more active Th17 cells and lower numbers of IL-17+ non-T cells.

As it was shown recently that nanostructures can exist in water-ethanol-citronellol tinctures, a deeper investigation of these media was performed using conductivity, UV-Vis and FT-IR spectroscopy techniques. Different regimes of conductivity, depending on the water content, an increase of the polarity of the polar pseudo-phase with increasing water content, and even the presence of free water molecules at higher water content are observed, just as in classical surfactant-based microemulsions. The percolation model, generally used to fit conductivity data in surfactant based microemulsion having a weak interfacial film, can be used to fit our conductivity data below a critical water content Φ(p)(w) with a critical exponent typical of dynamic percolation. In presence of higher water contents, superior to Φ(p)(w), obtained conductivity data cannot be fitted neither with a static nor a dynamic percolation model. As in surfactant-based microemulsions, an increase of polarity of the microenvironment with increasing water content can be postulated using respectively the UV-Vis wavelength absorption band (λ(max)) of methyl orange and performing FT-IR spectra.

Although the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) MET is widely expressed in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), its prognostic value remains unclear. This might be due to the use of a variety of antibodies and scoring systems. Here, the reliability of five commercial C-terminal MET antibodies (D1C2, CVD13, SP44, C-12 and C-28) was evaluated before examining the prognostic value of MET immunoreactivity in HNSCC. Using cancer cell lines, it was shown that D1C2 and CVD13 specifically detect MET under reducing, native and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) conditions. Immunohistochemical staining of routinely FFPE oral SCC with D1C2 and CVD13 demonstrated that D1C2 is most sensitive in the detection of membranous MET. Examination of membranous D1C2 immunoreactivity with 179 FFPE oral and oropharyngeal SCC – represented in a tissue microarray – illustrated that staining is either uniform (negative or positive) across tumors or differs between a tumor's center and periphery. Ultimately, statistical analysis revealed that D1C2 uniform staining is significantly associated with poor 5-year overall and disease free survival of patients lacking vasoinvasive growth (HR = 3.019, p < 0.001; HR = 2.559, p < 0.001). These findings might contribute to reliable stratification of patients eligible for treatment with biologicals directed against MET.