Background and Objectives. In emergency departments, chest pain is a common concern, highlighting the critical importance of distinguishing between acute coronary syndrome and other potential causes. Our research aimed to introduce and implement the HEAR score, specifically, in remote emergency outposts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Materials and Methods. This follow-up study conducted a retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort consisting of patients who were admitted to the remote emergency medicine outposts in Canton Sarajevo and Zenica from 1 November to 31 December 2023. Results. This study comprised 103 (12.9%) patients with low-risk HEAR scores and 338 (83.8%) with high-risk HEAR scores, primarily female (221, 56.9%), with a mean age of 63.5 ± 11.2). Patients with low-risk HEAR scores were significantly younger (50.5 ± 15.6 vs. 65.9 ± 12.1), had fewer smokers (p < 0.05), and exhibited a lower incidence of cardiovascular risk factors compared to those with high-risk HEAR scores. Low-risk HEAR score for prediction of AMI had a sensitivity of 97.1% (95% CI 89.9–99.6%); specificity of 27.3% (95% CI 22.8–32.1%); PPV of 19.82% (95% CI 18.67–21.03%), and NPV of 98.08% (95% CI 92.80–99.51%). Within 30 days of the admission to the emergency department outpost, out of all 441 patients, 100 (22.7%) were diagnosed with MACE, with AMI 69 (15.6%), 3 deaths (0.7%), 6 (1.4%) had a CABG, and 22 (4.9%) underwent PCI. A low-risk HEAR score had a sensitivity of 97.0% (95% CI 91.7–99.4%) and specificity of 27.3% (95% CI 22.8–32.1%); PPV of 25.5% (95% CI 25.59–28.37%); NPV of 97.14% (95% CI 91.68–99.06%) for 30-day MACE. Conclusions. In conclusion, the outcomes of this study align with existing research, underscoring the effectiveness of the HEAR score in risk stratification for patients with chest pain. In practical terms, the implementation of the HEAR score in clinical decision-making processes holds significant promise.

Introduction Clinicians encounter challenges in promptly diagnosing thoracolumbar injuries (TLIs) and fractures (VFs), motivating the exploration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) technologies to enhance diagnostic capabilities. Despite varying evidence, the noteworthy transformative potential of AI in healthcare, leveraging insights from daily healthcare data, persists. Research question This review investigates the utilization of ML and DL in TLIs causing VFs. Materials and methods Employing Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) methodology, a systematic review was conducted in PubMed and Scopus databases, identifying 793 studies. Seventeen were included in the systematic review, and 11 in the meta-analysis. Variables considered encompassed publication years, geographical location, study design, total participants (14,524), gender distribution, ML or DL methods, specific pathology, diagnostic modality, test analysis variables, validation details, and key study conclusions. Meta-analysis assessed specificity, sensitivity, and conducted hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curve (HSROC) analysis. Results Predominantly conducted in China (29.41%), the studies involved 14,524 participants. In the analysis, 11.76% (N = 2) focused on ML, while 88.24% (N = 15) were dedicated to deep DL. Meta-analysis revealed a sensitivity of 0.91 (95% CI = 0.86–0.95), consistent specificity of 0.90 (95% CI = 0.86–0.93), with a false positive rate of 0.097 (95% CI = 0.068–0.137). Conclusion The study underscores consistent specificity and sensitivity estimates, affirming the diagnostic test's robustness. However, the broader context of ML applications in TLIs emphasizes the critical need for standardization in methodologies to enhance clinical utility.

The purpose of the present study is to simulate erosion on the aluminium plate with a cylindrical hole caused by solid particles after passing through 90° elbow, using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the Discrete Phase Model (DPM), and erosion equations. Discrete trajectories of solid particles are calculated using the Lagrangian approach, while the simulation of the fluid was obtained by solving the fluid motion equation using the Eulerian approach. Supplementary sub-models are incorporated into the software to enhance the accuracy of particle trajectory calculations within the simulated geometry. These sub-models include collisions of solid particles with walls (stochastic model) and erosion model. The numerical simulation results obtained in this paper were compared with the existing experimental results from the group of authors, demonstrating a good match. The paper provides the main characteristics of the mathematical model, along with the interpretation of results and a discussion, with the key findings highlighted in the conclusion. The findings indicate that erosion process is significantly influenced by both the particle impact velocity and impact angle, which are key parameters in many erosion equa - tions. Furthermore, it is observed that the velocity of the particles is consistently lower than the mean velocity of the air. Additionally, the angle at which the particles impact the aluminium plate is not always exactly 90° due to multiple collisions with the wall, signifying that the particles do not move exclusively vertically.

Leptospirosis is a (re) emerging zoonosis that occurs worldwide. This study aimed to assess seroprevalence of leptospirosis and to identify the most common reactive serovars and risk factors for seropositivity in apparently healthy stray dogs of unknown vaccination status in the Sarajevo region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Positive microscopic agglutination test titres (≥ 1:25) were detected in 3.87% (156/4028) of samples and most of the sera reacted against one serovar (85.9%). Dogs were most commonly reactive to Canicola (40.4%) and Hardjo (33.3%), followed by Pomona (15.4%) Tarassovi (14.7%), Icterohaemorrhagiae (8.3%), Grippotyphosa (5.8%), Bratislava (1.3%) and Saxkoebing (0.6%). Dogs older than one year had higher odds of seropositivity compared to younger dogs. The seropositivity was higher in spring and autumn than in summer. These results advocate for the need of a control strategy for this zoonosis in the country, which should include sero-surveillance, monitoring, and the inclusion of additional serovars in the testing.

BACKGROUND We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of serum albumin-to-creatinine ratio (sACR) in carotid artery stenting (CAS) patients regarding in-hospital and 5-year outcomes. METHODS This is a retrospective study. Baseline characteristics were compared between patients by admission albumin to creatinine ratio and categorized accordingly: T1, T2 and T3. 609 patients were included in the study. Serum albumin and creatinine levels at hospital admission were used to calculate the sACR. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality. MACE consisted of stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), myocardial infarction (MI) and death. All follow-up data were obtained from electronic medical records or by interview. The study was terminated after 60 months of follow-up. RESULTS Serum albumin levels were found to be significantly lower in T1, while creatinine was found to be significantly higher in T1. T1 has the lowest sACR while T3 has the highest. In hospital, ipsilateral stroke, major stroke, MI and death were significantly higher in T1. In long-term outcomes, ipsilateral stroke, major stroke, and death were significantly higher in T1. CONCLUSIONS Low sACR values at hospital admission was independently associated with in-hospital and long-term mortality and major stroke in patients underwent CAS.

It is known that more than 10% of genetic diseases are caused by a mutation in protein-coding mRNA (premature termination codon; PTC). mRNAs with an early stop codon are degraded by the cellular surveillance process known as nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), which prevents the synthesis of C-terminally truncated proteins. Up-frameshift-1 (UPF1) has been reported to be involved in the downregulation of various cancers, and low expression of UPF1 was shown to correlate with poor prognosis. It is known that UPF1 is a master regulator of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). UPF1 may also function as an E3 ligase and degrade target proteins without using mRNA decay mechanisms. Increasing evidence indicates that UPF1 could serve as a good biomarker for cancer diagnosis and treatment for future therapeutic applications. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have the ability to bind different proteins and regulate gene expression; this role in cancer cells has already been identified by different studies. This article provides an overview of the aberrant expression of UPF1, its functional properties, and molecular processes during cancer for clinical applications in cancer. We also discussed the interactions of lncRNA with UPF1 for cell growth during tumorigenesis.

Limited edge server resources and uneven distribution of traffic density in vehicular networks result in problems such as unbalanced network load and high task processing latency. To address these issues, we proposed an efficient caching and offloading resource allocation (ECORA) strategy in vehicular social networks. First, to improve the utilization of vehicular idle resources, a collaborative computation and storage resource allocation mechanism was designed using mobile social similarity. Next, with the optimization objective of minimizing the average task processing delay, we studied the combined resource allocation optimization problem and decoupled it into two sub-problems. For the service caching subproblem, we designed a stable matching algorithm by mobile social connections to dynamically update the cache resource allocation scheme for improving the task unloading efficiency. For the task offloading subproblem, a discrete cuckoo search algorithm based on differential evolution was designed to adaptively select the best task offloading scheme, which minimized the average task processing delay. Simulation results revealed that the ECORA strategy outperformed the resource allocation strategy based on particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm, and reduced the average task processing delay by at least 7.59%. Meanwhile, the ECORA strategy can achieve superior network load balancing.

Conventional techniques that measure the concentration of light elements in metallic materials lack high-resolution performance due to their intrinsic limitation of sensitivity. In that context, scanning microwave microscopy has the potential to significantly enhance the quantification of element distribution due to its ability to perform a tomographic investigation of the sample. Scanning microwave microscopy associates the local electromagnetic measurement and the nanoscale resolution of an atomic force microscope. This technique allows the simultaneous characterization of oxygen concentration as well as local mechanical properties by microwave phase shift and amplitude signal, respectively. The technique was calibrated by comparison with nuclear reaction analysis and nanoindentation measurement. We demonstrated the reliability of the scanning microwave technique by studying thin oxygen-enriched layers on a Ti-6Al-4V alloy. This innovative approach opens novel possibilities for the indirect quantification of light chemical element diffusion in metallic materials. This technique is applicable to the control and optimization of industrial processes.

Triazoles and triazolium salts are very common subunits in the structures of various drugs. Medicaments with a characteristic 1,2,3-triazole core are also being developed to treat neurodegenerative disorders associated with cholinesterase enzyme activity. Several naphtho- and thienobenzo-triazoles from our previous research emerged as being particularly promising in that sense. For this reason, in this research, new naphtho- and thienobenzo-triazoles 23–34, as well as 1,2,3-triazolium salts 44–51, were synthesized and tested. Triazolium salts 44–46 showed excellent activity while salts 47 and 49 showed very good inhibition toward both butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzymes. In contrast, neutral photoproducts were shown to be selective towards BChE but with very good inhibition potential as molecules 24–27. The representative of newly prepared compounds, 45 and 50, were stable in aqueous solution and revealed intriguing fluorimetric properties, characterized by a strong Stokes shift of >160 nm. Despite their condensed polycyclic structure shaped similarly to well-known DNA-intercalator ethidium bromide, the studied compounds did not show any interaction with ds-DNA, likely due to the unfavorable steric hindrance of substituents. However, the studied dyes bind proteins, particularly showing very diverse inhibition properties toward AChE and BChE. In contrast, neutral photoproducts were shown to be selective towards a certain enzyme but with moderate inhibition potential. The molecular docking of the best-performing candidates to cholinesterases’ active sites identified cation–π interactions as the most responsible for the stability of the enzyme–ligand complexes. As genotoxicity studies are crucial when developing new active substances and finished drug forms, in silico studies for all the compounds synthesized have been performed.

Tire wear particles (TWP) stand out as a major contributor to microplastic pollution, yet their environmental impact remains inadequately understood. This study delves into the cocktail effects of TWP leachates, employing molecular, cellular, and organismal assessments on diverse biological models. Extracted in artificial seawater and analyzed for metals and organic compounds, TWP leachates revealed the presence of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and 4-tert-octylphenol. Exposure to TWP leachates (1.5 to 1000 mg peq L-1) inhibited algae growth and induced zebrafish embryotoxicity, pigment alterations, and behavioral changes. Cell painting uncovered pro-apoptotic changes, while mechanism-specific gene-reporter assays highlighted endocrine-disrupting potential, particularly antiandrogenic effects. Although heavy metals like zinc have been suggested as major players in TWP leachate toxicity, this study emphasizes water-leachable organic compounds as the primary causative agents of observed acute toxicity. The findings underscore the need to reduce TWP pollution in aquatic systems and enhance regulations governing highly toxic tire additives.

This study investigated the capital structure of 18 publicly traded agricultural companies over a 10-year period (2012-2022), specifically focusing on short-term debt to total liabilities (SHTDTL). Employing a dataset of 121 observations, the strategic financing decisions of these firms in the Republic of Srpska’s stock market were analyzed. The study examines the impact of various factors, including total debt to total equity (TDTC), tangible assets (TOA), company size (CS), current assets ratio (CR), current assets to total assets (CAA), return on equity (ROE), and return on assets (ROA), on capital structure choices. Results reveal that TOA, CAA, and ROE significantly positively influence the short-term debt ratio, while CS and ROA have a significant negative impact. This research sheds light on the financial decision-making of agricultural enterprises, offering insights that can inform their financing strategies and improve financial performance.

Abstract Nordic agriculture faces big challenges to reduce phosphorus (P) loss from land to water for improving surface water quality. While understanding the processes controlling P loss and seeking for P mitigation measures, Norwegian and Swedish researchers have substantially benefited from and been inspired by Dr. Andrew Sharpley's career‐long, high‐standard P research. Here, we demonstrate how Sharpley and his research have helped the Nordic researchers to understand the role of cover crops in cold environmental conditions, best manure P management practices, and ditch processes. His work on critical source area (CSA) identification and site assessment tool development have also greatly inspired our thinking on the targeting of mitigation measures and the contextualizing tools for Nordic climate, landscape, and soils. While reflecting on Sharpley's legacy, we identify several needs for Norwegian and Swedish P research and management. These include (1) tackling the challenges caused by local/regional unevenness in livestock density and related manure management and farm P surpluses, (2) identifying CSAs of P loss with high erosion risk and high P surplus, (3) obtaining more high‐resolution mapping of soils with low P sorption capacity both in the topsoil and subsoil, (4) improving cross‐scale understanding of processes and mitigation measures and proper follow‐up of applied mitigation measures, and (5) increasing collaborations of researchers with farmers and farmers’ advisory groups and watershed groups by developing high‐quality educational courses and extension materials. The needs should be addressed in the context of the challenges and opportunities created by climate change.

This qualitative study explores the evolution and implications of limiting contractual liability in Saudi Arabia, focusing on the interplay between Sharia principles, international conventions, and domestic legal reforms. Through a comprehensive analysis of primary and secondary sources, including the new Civil Transactions Law 2023 and relevant legal documents, the research aims to thoroughly understand the historical roots and contemporary dynamics shaping contractual practices in Saudi Arabia. The study uncovers the challenges and opportunities inherent in harmonizing Sharia principles with global legal norms within the Saudi legal framework. Examining the new legislation reveals notable changes in the treatment of liability in commercial contracts, signaling a shift towards modernization and alignment with international standards. Its findings highlight the complexities of balancing contractual autonomy with legal constraints in the Saudi context, emphasizing the need for ongoing dialogue and research to address emerging issues and enhance the clarity and enforceability of contractual agreements. The study underscores the importance of a collaborative approach that integrates legal, cultural, and international perspectives to strengthen the legal framework and foster a conducive environment for commercial transactions in Saudi Arabia. In doing so, it offers a nuanced analysis of the legal landscape, shedding light on stakeholders' challenges and opportunities in navigating contractual practices within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.