Background/Aim: Until March 2023, it has been reported over 676 million cases of COVID-19 globally with almost 7 million deaths caused by this disease. Aim of this study was to determine COVID-19-related deaths and to study how COVID-19 pandemic impacted mortality of residents in the Canton of Sarajevo in 2020-2022 time period. Also, aim was to analyse to what extent the number of registered non-COVID-19-related deaths have changed in the Canton of Sarajevo compared to what would have been expected in the absence of the virus to better measure the impact of COVID-19. Methods: This study used mortality data obtained from Federal Institute for Statistics for period 2017-2022. Data was analysed and presented as raw numbers, age-, sex-, cause of death - crude death rates (CDR), excess mortality and P-score. Results: CDR in the Canton of Sarajevo in 2020 was 1246.3 per 100.000 persons, 1488.6 in 2021 and 1153.4 in 2022, while in period from 2017-2019 CDR ranged from 1051.3 to 1057.9. Total CDR in 2020 increased by 18.3 % compared to 2017-2019 average CDR, this relative difference being even greater in 2021 (41.3 %) and lower in 2022 (9.5 %). In 2020-2022 time period, 9 of the 10 leading causes of death remained the same as in 2019. COVID-19 was the 3rd leading cause of death in 2020 and 2022, while in 2021 spiked as the leading cause of death. In 2020 there was increase of 7 % in deaths from non-COVID-19 related deaths compared to mean number of deaths for period 2017-2019. As for 2021, this number goes higher (9.5 %) and in 2022 was much lower (1.0 %). Conclusion: In the Canton of Sarajevo, COVID-19 pandemic made a big impact on mortality in 2020-2022 years period. Data have changed in total mortality, leading causes of death and excess mortality. Deep-rooted organisational weaknesses that were exposed during pandemic that can bring harm to population from preventable chronic diseases needs to be addressed which have impact on morbidity and at the end, on mortality.

Background: Thyroid dysfunction includes hyper- and hypofunction of the thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism). The spectrum encompasses both subclinical and clinical disease presentation. The etiology is vast and varied, as are the risk factors and simptoms. Objective: The main aim of the research is to indicate the leading symptom for initial thyroid hormone status evaluation, as well as to identify the distribution of positive and negative test results, and specific disorders according to sex and age groups. Methods: The research is designed as a retrospective, clinical, descriptive study. There were 500 participants included, 355 female and 145 male. Patients were referred to the Department of endocrinology by their primary care physicians. The data was collected through patient documentation. Results: The study included 500 participants, 71% of diagnostic requests made were for women. 80% of subjects had normal thyroid hormone status, p<0.001. Most requests were made for the 41-60 age group, p<0.001. Women had similar number of positive and negative test outcomes, as well as men. When it comes to the age groups, outcomes were similar in all of them, 15-23% positive and 77-85% negative. There were significant differences in the type of symptom expressed in both men and women, as well as all the age groups. Men reported high blood pressure as the most common symptom (30.3%), while women reported weight gain (22.3%). In the 18-25 and 26-40 age groups most common symptom belongs to the category of other. Age group of 41-60 reported weight gain as the most common symptom, while in participants older than 60, high blood pressure is proven to be the most common. Hypothyroidism is the most common disorder in both men and women, as well as in all age groups. Conclusion: It is statistically proven that there were more requests made for women, and older age groups. Leading symptom for initial thyroid hormone status evaluation is high blood pressure. There is no statistically significant difference in distribution of thyroid disorders according to sex or age groups.

The concept of usufruct as an independent right, ius in re aliena, was not questioned in Justinian’s sources, while on the other hand, its systematisation, development, and legal nature in analyses of classical law were the subject of serious debates among Romance experts, mainly in Italian Romance studies from the beginning of the 20th century. Some experts in Romance studies understood usufruct as pars dominii, i.e. part of the property right that the owner retains for himself, thereby denying him the position of a special right. Such a concept originates from the glossator and post-glossator schools and, the paper analyses strong reflections of their teaching on contemporary legal doctrine. The paper deals with the concept and definition of usufruct and conducts analysis into the legal sources and reasons that led to differences in the understanding of the legal nature of the institute in the Roman legal tradition.

We use the Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) theory to investigate the stability of solutions of a system of difference equations, a certain class of a generalized May's host-parasitoid model. We show the existence of the extinction, interior, and boundary equilibrium points and examine their stability. When the rate of increase of hosts is less than one, the zero equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable, which means that both populations are extinct. We thoroughly describe the dynamics of 1:1 non-isolated resonance fixed points and have used the KAM theory to determine the stability of interior equilibrium point. Also, we have conducted several numerical simulations to support our findings by using the software package Mathematica.

Skin sensitization is a crucial endpoint in the safety assessment of chemicals, with the Direct Peptide Reactivity Assay (DPRA) emerging as a valuable in chemico method for evaluating a substance's sensitization potential. This review delves into the principles, applicability, and limitations of the DPRA within the context of the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework for skin sensitization. We examine the DPRA'srole in addressing the molecular initiating event of skin sensitization, its integration into Integrated Approaches to Testing and Assessment (IATA), and its performance in predicting sensitizers. The review also highlights the challenges in testing certain categories of chemicals and the importance of considering the DPRA's results alongside other complementary methods. By providing a comprehensive overview of the DPRA, this review aims to inform researchers, regulators, and clinicians about its utility and limitations in the context of skin sensitization testing.

Consumption of fish has increased in last 50 years. Fish as a food is changing red meat because it has unsaturated fat and it is the best source of omega 3 fatty acids. Beside it is full of minerals, vitamins and it has high biological value of proteins.The content of heavy metals in the muscle tissue of fish is directly related to the pollution of the water they come from The analysis of the content of heavy metals was done by the Institute of Public Health of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.The content of lead (Pb) in the tested samples of fresh fish ranged from 0.0015 to 0.0381 mg/kg. The measured content of cadmium (Cd) in the examined samples was in the range of 3.3*10-5 to 0.0053 mg/kg. The content of arsenic (As) in the tested samples ranged from 0.0085 to 1.1668 mg/kg. The mercury (Hg) content in the tested samples of fresh fish ranged from 0.0033 to 0.0991 mg/kg, which is within the allowed values prescribed by the Rulebook. It has been statistically proven that there is a significant difference in the measured values of lead, arsenic and cadmium in the samples of sea and freshwater fish. Aim of this work was to establish do the samples of fresh fish contain concentration of heavy metals more than concentrations prescribed in Rule book about allowed amounts of certain contaminants in food. Thereby ten samples of fresh fish were tested, five samples of marine fish and five samples of freshwater fish. Results showed that all samples of fish satisfy allowed concentration of heavy metals according to the Rule book.

Introduction/purpose: This paper presents the results of the research on visually lossless image compression which is of particular interest because it achieves a high degree of compression, while the visual quality of the image is not impaired, i.e., end users are very satisfied with the image quality. The analysis was carried out using the publicly available large-scale picture-wise KonJND-1k database which contains the results of subjective tests on JPEG and BPG compressed images. Methods: Thanks to the availability of images from the KonJND-1k database, the dependence of objective assessments of image quality on parameters that control the degree of compression of source signals (quality factor for JPEG and quantization parameter for BPG) is analyzed. The results of the visually lossless subjective tests are used for a deep analysis of the boundary and typical values of the parameters that control these two types of compression, as well as for the analysis of the corresponding values of the objective quality scores. Furthermore, reliable features for predicting the boundary between visually lossless and visually lossy compression have been identified. For that purpose, the degree of agreement between the predictions and the ground truth values of the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and image representation in bits per pixel (bpp) is used. The visually lossless compression ratio is used to compare JPEG and BPG techniques. Results: It is shown that the boundary between visually lossless and visually lossy image compression is found in a wide range of PSNR values (about 20 dB for JPEG and 15 dB for BPG). The corresponding JPEG image compression quality factor values at this threshold also range widely from 31 to 79, with concentration between 40 and 45. For the BPG encoder, the values of the quantization parameter are grouped around 30, and the boundary values are 25 and 34. Furthermore, it is shown that this boundary can be reliably determined based on simple features derived from the original uncompressed image. Gradient-based features known as spatial frequency and spatial information proved to be the best predictors. The degree of agreement between the predictions obtained from these features with the ground truth values of PSNR and bpp in both types of compression is greater than 85%. A comparative analysis has showed that, using BPG compression, it is possible, on the average, to achieve a twice larger compression ratio of visually lossless compression than for JPEG (80 versus 40). Conclusion: Although a high degree of agreement is achieved between the predictions and the ground truth values of PSNR and bpp of the boundary between visually lossless and visually lossy compression, there is a need for the development of new prediction approaches, especially with the BPG technique, which through the compression ratio proved to be superior to the JPEG technique. The existing databases used for the analysis of visually lossless compression contain color images from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Considering the increasing use of images from the infrared part of the spectrum, there is a need to conduct similar tests in this spectral range.

Introduction/purpose: Direct sequence spread spectrum modulation is widely used in many radiocommunications systems. At the first time, this modulation technique was used in military communications and navigation systems. Later, applications became diverse in civil communication systems as well. Today, there are many systems where direct sequence spread spectrum modulation is implemented as a part of the system. This article aims to sublimate knowledge about the direct sequence spread spectrum modulation technique and its applications. Methods: The article presents a review of the historical development of the direct sequence spread spectrum modulation technique, its principles and the most important current applications. Results: Based on a large number of references, this article summarizes the historical development, basic principles and modern applications of the direct sequence spread spectrum modulation in military and commercial communication systems. Conclusion: Direct sequence spread spectrum modulation is widely used in modern wireless and satellite radiocommunications. It is expected to be part of future global communication systems.

In nowadays business conditions, such as increased competition and the rapid market changes, companies can be distinguished by the quality of services resulting from analysis and matching opportunities with market requirements. One way is to use the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method. This method has shown a significant effect in the EU countries, the USA, and especially in Japan, while in our country its use is not widespread in the quality system. From the market perspective, there are three basic product characteristics: price, quality and delivery time. These facts are used in the planning process, based on user requirements interpretation into appropriate quality characteristics for each phase of the product life cycle (marketing, planning, design, prototype development, production process testing and development, production, sales). The common goal of the entire team working on the project must be the product competitiveness on the market. This method application has led to significant improvements in solving deficiencies in planning, designing, testing and developing the production process. In this paper, we presented the QFD method application for selecting products or services that meet the quality, price, and delivery time requirements.

The global world is in a period of "permacrisis", which is defined as a prolonged period of uncertainty and instability. Circumstances in the world in all spheres of social action are changing very quickly, and therefore the models of action must also change quickly. This is also the case with health care systems in countries. New challenges for public health and health systems is a strong health transition conditioned by demographic and epidemiological transition, then accelerated environmental changes and technological changes. We live in a time when the frequency of crises is increasing - including public health crises - climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases - pandemics, accelerated population migration, the rise of consumerism and the significant influence of commercial determinants of health, which significantly increases the risk factors in the early onset and development of chronic diseases - diseases of the heart and blood vessels, chronic pulmonary obstructions, malignant diseases, mental health disorders, etc. In order for the health care system to provide timely and quality health care to each individual, and finally to the entire population, which is not necessarily only acute health care, but lifelong health care, from health promotion, through prevention, diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation, it is necessary to know all the circumstances in which people live and work, the most important of which are four groups of factors: socioeconomic, environmental, genetic and cultural. Modern healthcare systems require significant change management at all levels within the system, characterized by the proactive role of healthcare services, mastery of healthcare planning techniques, healthcare needs assessment and, finally, digital health. Change management becomes a "conditio sine qua non" at all levels of health care in all countries, at all levels of health care in order to increase technical and allocative efficiency and outcomes for the health of the population. Therefore, it is necessary to develop more significant regional cooperation for the modification and refinement of educational models for health professionals, which would be in "real time" and through which everyone would quickly adapt to global changes.