OP-145 and SAAP-148, two 24-mer antimicrobial peptides derived from human cathelicidin LL-37, exhibit killing efficacy against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria at comparable peptide concentrations. However, when it comes to the killing activity against Escherichia coli, the extent of membrane permeabilization does not align with the observed bactericidal activity. This is the case in living bacteria as well as in model membranes mimicking the E. coli cytoplasmic membrane (CM). In order to understand the killing activity of both peptides on a molecular basis, here we studied their mode of action, employing a combination of microbiological and biophysical techniques including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), zeta potential measurements, and spectroscopic analyses. Various membrane dyes were utilized to monitor the impact of the peptides on bacterial and model membranes. Our findings unveiled distinct binding patterns of the peptides to the bacterial surface and differential permeabilization of the E. coli CM, depending on the smooth or rough/deep-rough lipopolysaccharide (LPS) phenotypes of E. coli strains. Interestingly, the antimicrobial activity and membrane depolarization were not significantly different in the different LPS phenotypes investigated, suggesting a general mechanism that is independent of LPS. Although the peptides exhibited limited permeabilization of E. coli membranes, DSC studies conducted on a mixture of synthetic phosphatidylglycerol/phosphatidylethanolamine/cardiolipin, which mimics the CM of Gram-negative bacteria, clearly demonstrated disruption of lipid chain packing. From these experiments, we conclude that depolarization of the CM and alterations in lipid packing plays a crucial role in the peptides’ bactericidal activity.

The main goal of the paper is to examine comprehension of basic emotion and facial expression of children with hearing impairment. The research encompasses a sample of 66 respondents out of which 33 have non-damaged hearing and the remaining 33 respondents have hearing impairment. The age of respondents ranges, in chronological order, from 7 to 15 years. Recognition of emotions and facial expressions is being examined through 4 sets of tasks. The Emotion Recognition Test (ERT) is being used for evaluation, it has been adapted for the purpose of this paper and thereby adjusted for electronic usage via computer and internet. Through statistical processing of given data, following components have been calculated: minimal and maximum values, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney U test, curvature test and flattening of distribution curve, t-test. Research results concluded that hearing impairment in children affects, with statistical significance, recognition and comprehension of facial expressions and emotions compared to their peers with no hearing impairment. The results were expected given the hearing condition and the consequences which hearing impairment creates. Children with hearing impairment possess poor vocabulary which affects comprehension of emotions. Statistically significant difference occurs among children with hearing impairments and recognition and comprehension of facial expression and emotions within situational context and isolated facial expressions.Key words: deaf children, comprehension of emotions, emotions of the deaf, facial expressions, hearing impairments.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive malignancy characterized by rapid proliferation, early dissemination, acquired therapy resistance, and poor prognosis. Early diagnosis of SCLC is crucial since most patients present with advanced/metastatic disease, limiting the potential for curative treatment. While SCLC exhibits initial responsiveness to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, treatment resistance commonly emerges, leading to a five-year overall survival rate of up to 10%. New effective biomarkers, early detection, and advancements in therapeutic strategies are crucial for improving survival rates and reducing the impact of this devastating disease. This review aims to comprehensively summarize current knowledge on diagnostic options, well-known and emerging biomarkers, and SCLC treatment strategies and discuss future perspectives on this aggressive malignancy.

OBJECTIVE Depression and obesity are two highly prevalent and often comorbid conditions. Exposure to early-life stress (ELS) has been associated with both depression and obesity in adulthood, as well as their preclinical manifestations during development. However, it remains unclear whether: (i) associations differ depending on the timing of stress exposure (prenatal vs postnatal) and (ii) ELS is a shared risk factor underlying the comorbidity between the two conditions. METHOD Leveraging data from two large population-based birth cohorts (ALSPAC: n=8428 (52% male participants); Generation R: n=4268 (48% male participants)), we constructed comprehensive cumulative measures of prenatal (in utero) and postnatal (from birth to 10 years) ELS. At age 13.5 years we assessed: a) internalizing symptoms (using maternal reports); b) fat mass percentage (using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry); c) their comorbidity, defined as the co-occurrence of high internalizing and high adiposity. RESULTS Both prenatal (total effect [95%CI] = 0.20 [0.16;0.22]) and postnatal stress (β [95%CI] = 0.22 [0.17;0.25]) were associated with higher internalizing symptoms, with evidence of a more prominent role of postnatal stress. A weaker association (primarily driven by prenatal stress) was observed between stress and adiposity (prenatal: 0.07 [0.05;0.09]; postnatal: 0.04 [0.01;0.07]). Both pre- (OR [95%CI] = 1.70 [1.47;1.97]) and postnatal stress (1.87 [1.61;2.17]) were associated with an increased risk of developing comorbidity. CONCLUSION We found evidence of (i) timing and (ii) shared causal effects of ELS on psycho-cardiometabolic health in adolescence, but future research is warranted to clarify how these associations may unfold over time.

The complexity of orchestrating Beyond 5G services, such as vehicular, demands novel approaches to remove limitations of existing techniques, as these might cause a large delay in orchestration operations, and thus, negatively impact the service performance. For instance, the human-in-the-loop approach is slow and prone to errors, and closed loop control using rule-based algorithms is difficult to design, as an abundant number of parameters need to be configured. Applying Artificial Intelligence (Al)/Machine Learning (ML), in combination with Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN), seems a promising solution for enabling automation and intelligence that will optimize orchestration operations. In this article, we study the challenges in current ETSI NFV orchestration solutions for B5G C-V2X edge services; propose an Al/ML-based closed-loop orchestration framework; propose how and which Al/ML techniques can alleviate the identified challenges and what are the implications resulting from applying certain Al/ML techniques; and discuss A//ML-based system enablers for B5G C-V2X services.

Player performance in an intense sport such as basketball is known to be related to attributes such as speed, agility, and power. This study presents a comparative analysis of associations between anthropometric assessment and physical performance in different age groups of elite youth basketball players, while simultaneously identifying the predictors for speed and agility in these players. U14 (n = 44), U15 (n = 45), and U16 (n = 51) players were tested for anthropometry, lower-body power, speed, and agility. U16 players were found to be taller, heavier, more muscular than U14 and U15 players. In addition, the U16 group showed better performance in all performance tests. Age had a significant positive correlation with countermovement (CMJ) and drop jump (DJ) performance in U14 players, and a significant negative correlation with 15m and 20m sprint times in the U15 group. CMJ and DJ emerged as the most significant predictors for sprint and agility variables, respectively. Body fat percentage was found to be a significant predictor for the speed and agility tests in all age groups, but a negative lower-body power predictor. Therefore, besides all sport-specific and fitness tests, it is essential to place emphasis on the percentage of body fat when designing players’ individualized training programs, and during team selection.

The goal of our research is improvement of mathematics curriculum and popularization of mathematics among students of economics in developing countries. We analyze and compare curricula of pure mathematics courses that are taught to university students of faculties of economics in Japan and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Data set contains math syllabuses in 2021/22 school year from six public universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and seven from Japan. The text corpus was pre-processed and then the Term Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency algorithm, and Sentence Transformed Multi QA model were applied to build word vectors, find the similarity among Japanese and Bosnia and Herzegovina mathematics syllabuses using cosine similarity approach, and to find the key competences of these two countries mathematics syllabuses using the word cloud. Our results show the following similarity between the curricula: 60.7 percent using TF-IDF and 80.3 percent using Multi QA model. The key competences in the Japanese mathematics course are narrow and focused, in contrast to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s.

Objective: To summarize the existing knowledge about adrenal gland abscesses, including etiology, clinical presentation, common laboratory and imaging findings, management and overall morbidity and mortality. Design: Systematic literature review. Methods: We performed a search in the PubMed database using search terms: ‘abscess and adrenal glands’, ‘adrenalitis’, ‘infection and adrenal gland’, ‘adrenal abscess’, ‘adrenal infection’ and ‘infectious adrenalitis’. Articles from 2017 to 2022 were included. We found total of 116 articles, and after applying exclusion criteria, data from 73 articles was included in the final statistical analysis. Results: Of 84 patients included in this review, 68 were male (81%), with a mean age of 55 years (range: 29 to 85 years). Weight loss was the most frequent symptom reported in 58.3% patients, followed by fever in 49%. Mean duration of symptoms was 4.5 months. The most common laboratory findings were low cortisol (51.9%), elevated ACTH (43.2%), hyponatremia (88.2%) and anemia (83.3%). Adrenal cultures were positive in 86.4% cases, with Histoplasma capsulatum (37.3%) being the leading causative agent. Blood cultures were positive in 30% of patients. The majority of the adrenal infections occurred through secondary dissemination from other infectious foci and abscesses were more commonly bilateral (70%). A total of 46.4% of patients developed long-term adrenal insufficiency requiring treatment. Abscess drainage was performed in 7 patients (8.3%) and adrenalectomy was performed in 18 (21.4%) patients. The survival rate was 92.9%. Multivariate analysis showed that the only independent risk factor for mortality was thrombocytopenia (p = 0.048). Conclusion: Our review shows that adrenal abscesses are usually caused by fungal pathogens, and among these, Histoplasma capsulatum is the most common. The adrenal glands are usually involved in a bilateral fashion and become infected through dissemination from other primary sources of infection. Long-term adrenal insufficiency develops in 46% of patients, which is more common than what is observed in non-infectious etiology of adrenal gland disorders. Mortality is about 7%, and the presence of thrombocytopenia is associated with worse prognosis. Further prospective studies are needed to better characterize optimal testing and treatment duration in patients with this relatively rare but challenging disorder.

Unlike other adverse drug reactions, visceral organ involvement is a prominent feature of drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome and correlates with mortality. The aim of this study was to systematically review cases published in PubMed-indexed, peer-reviewed journals in which patients had renal injury during the episode of DRESS syndrome (DS). We found 71 cases, of which 67 were adults and 56% were males. Female sex was associated with higher mortality. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) was present in 14% of patients who developed acute kidney injury (AKI) during DS. In 21% of cases, the kidneys were the only visceral organ involved, while 54% of patients had both liver and kidney involvement. Eosinophilia was absent in 24% of patients. The most common classes of medication associated with renal injury in DS were antibiotics in 34%, xanthine oxidase inhibitors in 15%, and anticonvulsants in 11%. Among antibiotics, vancomycin was the most common culprit in 68% of patients. AKI was the most common renal manifestation reported in 96% of cases, while isolated proteinuria or hematuria was present in only 4% of cases. In cases with AKI, 88% had isolated increase in creatinine and decrease in glomerular filtration (GFR), 27% had AKI concomitantly with proteinuria, 18% had oliguria, and 13% had concomitant AKI with hematuria. Anuria was the rarest manifestation, occurring in only 4% of patients with DS. Temporary renal replacement therapy was needed in 30% of cases, and all but one patient fully recovered renal function. Mortality of DS in this cohort was 13%, which is higher than previously reported. Medication class, latency period, or pre-existing CKD were not found to be associated with higher mortality. More research, particularly prospective studies, is needed to better recognize the risks associated with renal injury in patients with DS. The development of disease-specific biomarkers would also be useful so DS with renal involvement can be easier distinguished from other eosinophilic diseases that might affect the kidney.

<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="BS-LATN-BA">The automotive industry represents an important segment of the overall industrial development in the world. In order to respond to the ever-increasing demands of customers, the automotive industry tries to keep up with the most modern technologies, and in recent times this primarily refers to information and communication technologies. Software-implemented functions in new vehicles are constantly increasing and are absolutely at the top of all innovations implemented in new vehicles. Thanks to artificial intelligence technologies, new concepts such as self-driving cars are being developed, as well as various driver monitoring systems, road condition monitoring systems, etc. There is an increasing number of artificial intelligence-based systems that enable new vehicles with different functions. The mentioned systems imply the use of a large number of networked IoT devices that exchange large amounts of data. By increasing the degree of networking and information exchange, the number of cyberattacks on vehicles also increases, which affects vehicle safety. Also, proportionally with the increase in the number of such systems, the need for designing security methods, mechanisms, architectures and protocols for detecting and mitigating attacks on car communication grows. This paper presents the challenges of cyber security in the application of artificial intelligence in the automotive industry.</span></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">The advent of cloud computing has revolutionized the IT industry, transforming the way organizations store, manage and process data. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the beginnings of cloud services, tracing their evolution from early concepts to the sophisticated solutions we have today. In addition, the document highlights the main benefits and challenges associated with cloud services. </span><span lang="EN-US">This paper provides a s comparative study of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, examining their architectures, functionalities and use cases. It explores the similarities and differences between these models, discusses their strengths and challenges, and analyzes their impact on organizations and end users. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) are the three main cloud computing service models, each offering different benefits and features. The document also discusses the major players in each category and offers insight into future trends and potential synergies between the three service models.</span></p>

This study offers a comprehensive examination of environmental governance within the European Union (EU), focusing on the comparative experiences of Bosnia and Herzegovina (a non-EU member) and Croatia (an EU member). The research uses policy transfer theory to investigate the practicality and effectiveness of EU-led environmental initiatives when implemented at state and local levels. The study reveals a disconnect between these initiatives and their execution, with corruption and fragile political arrangements identified as significant barriers to environmental protection. The research further underscores the complex nature of EU-driven environmental governance policies and the impact of post-war political agreements and transitional struggles on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s and Croatia’s governance structures. The methodology involves a detailed analysis of the legal frameworks, policies, and plans employed by the EU and the countries under study. The results highlight the importance of context and capacity in evaluating the effectiveness of environmental governance. The study contributes to understanding environmental governance in the EU context and provides insights into the challenges and opportunities for policy transfer to state-level governments.

we assessed 12 lifestyle-related epigenetic scores for their association with