Jet quenching is the process of color-charged partons losing energy via interactions with quark-gluon plasma droplets created in heavy-ion collisions. The collective expansion of such droplets is well described by viscous hydrodynamics. Similar evidence of collectivity is consistently observed in smaller collision systems, including pp and p+Pb collisions. In contrast, while jet quenching is observed in Pb+Pb collisions, no evidence has been found in these small systems to date, raising fundamental questions about the nature of the system created in these collisions. The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider has measured the yield of charged hadrons correlated with reconstructed jets in 0.36  nb^{-1} of p+Pb and 3.6  pb^{-1} of pp collisions at 5.02 TeV. The yields of charged hadrons with p_{T}^{ch}>0.5  GeV near and opposite in azimuth to jets with p_{T}^{jet}>30 or 60 GeV, and the ratios of these yields between p+Pb and pp collisions, I_{pPb}, are reported. The collision centrality of p+Pb events is categorized by the energy deposited by forward neutrons from the struck nucleus. The I_{pPb} values are consistent with unity within a few percent for hadrons with p_{T}^{ch}>4  GeV at all centralities. These data provide new, strong constraints that preclude almost any parton energy loss in central p+Pb collisions.

Neural Combinatorial Optimization approaches have recently leveraged the expressiveness and flexibility of deep neural networks to learn efficient heuristics for hard Combinatorial Optimization (CO) problems. However, most of the current methods lack generalization: for a given CO problem, heuristics which are trained on instances with certain characteristics underperform when tested on instances with different characteristics. While some previous works have focused on varying the training instances properties, we postulate that a one-size-fit-all model is out of reach. Instead, we formalize solving a CO problem over a given instance distribution as a separate learning task and investigate meta-learning techniques to learn a model on a variety of tasks, in order to optimize its capacity to adapt to new tasks. Through extensive experiments, on two CO problems, using both synthetic and realistic instances, we show that our proposed meta-learning approach significantly improves the generalization of two state-of-the-art models.

Background: Lipids and lipoproteins are significantly involved in maintaining structural and functional components of the human brain and neurons, but their role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD) remains unclear. Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the differences in the standard and novel lipid profile parameters in patients with AD and VD, stratified by the degree of cognitive impairment (CI). Methods: Present study included 66 patients with AD, 50 patients with VD, and 60 control subjects. For an evaluation of the global cognitive function the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test was used. In order to distinguish patients with VD from those with AD the Hachinski ischemic score was used. Plasma total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein -cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG) levels were determined using standard enzymatic colorimetric techniques, whereas the Friedewald formula was used to calculate low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. The non-traditional lipid indices such as TG/HDL-C, TC/HDL-C, and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio were separately calculated. The differences between the groups were analyzed with the Kruskal Wallis test followed by the Mann-Whitney test or with ANOVA followed by the Tuckey posthoc test. Results: Results of the conducted study have found that the patients in AD group with moderate CI and patients in AD group with severe CI exhibited significantly lower levels of serum TC, TG, LDL-C, VLDL-C, Non- HDL-C, atherogenic index, TG/HDL-C, TC/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C compared to cognitively normal control subjects. Moreover, patients in VD group with severe and moderate CI had significantly lower level of TG compared to control group of subjects. Our results have also shown that patients in AD group with moderate CI had significantly lower level of TC, TG, LDL-C, Non-HDL-C, atherogenic index, TG/HDL-C, TC/HDL-C compared to VD patients with moderate CI. In addition, patients in AD group with severe CI had significantly lower level of TC, LDL-C, Non-HDL-C and TC/HDL-C compared to VD patients with severe CI. Conclusion: The results of this study have shown dysregulation of lipid metabolism in AD and VD patients with different degree of CI. In both moderate and in severe CI, patients with AD had lower levels of majority of standard and novel lipid parameters compared to patients with VD. Further larger prospective studies are required to elucidate the accuracy of standard and novel lipid parameters in the assessment of different degree of CI in AD and VD.

The Western Balkan region (WB) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) lag behind the EU-28 counterparts in their export activities. The positive influence of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) on local business support organisations and the local businesses is identified as a contributing factor to that improvement. To investigate the EEN's role in the export of the WB SMEs in the period 2014-2017, the authors used available statistical data on export from the WB countries. The survey was conducted in three phases, with the samples of 1,463, 222, and 12 companies. Analysed results of the EEN activities in the WB show that EEN had a positive influence on the firms' performance and their international activities;67% of supported firms increased their turnover, 62% increased their market share, and the EEN services had a positive impact on the jobs in 52% of the examined firms. The survey results about the expected and actual impact of the EEN services proved a positive impact of the Network on the five indicators: market improvement, cost savings, job creation or maintenance, quality improvement, and innovation. The paper contains important practical implications for the policymakers and the SME managers alike, and the implications mentioned above are generalisable.

Background: Human papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted infection and it is estimated that 75% of all women have been exposed to HPV infection in a certain period of life. High-risk types of HPV are considered to be one of the major causes of cervical cancer and its precursor intraepithelial neoplasia. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the degree of HPV infections and to provide more data on HPV genotype distribution among women in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). Methods: Number of 375 samples were collected from different polyclinics in Sarajevo and were analyzed by Alea Genetic Center using Genomed f-HPV typing™ multiplex Fluorescent PCR kit for human papillomavirus genotyping. DNA required for this method is extracted from cervical swabs and amplified using a multiplex PCR reaction containing a set of 16 fluorescently labeled primers that recognize 16 HPV types. 14 HPV types are classified as high-risk (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68) and two are low-risk (6 and 11) HPV types. Results: Results showed that in the years 2018, 2019, and 2021, HPV type 16 is predominant causing the high-risk factor for CIN1, CIN2, CIN3, and cervical cancer development. HPV 18 infection rates decreased during the last four years of study. HPV 6 infection rates increased during that period of time. Conclusion: HPV 16 and HPV 18 are almost completely preventable by vaccination implying that the number of diagnosed cervical cancers in B&H could be much lower in the next decades if the HPV vaccination routine immunization program starts soon.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that causes a respiratory disease, COVID-19. For COVID-19 testing, real-time PCR is considered gold standard and therefore many commercial SARS-Cov-2 detection kits are available. Objective: The aim of the study is to determine diagnostic values of 10 different commercially available SARS-CoV-2 detection kits, based on their Ct value. Methods: For this study thirty clinical nasopharyngeal samples were collected in ALEA Genetic Center. Twenty four of them were positive, while six were negative and used as a negative control. Positive samples were selected based on the day when first symptoms appeared. RNA was extracted using the same extraction method for all samples. For amplification and comparison of detection kits, the same RT- PCR instrument was used. Results: Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and Cohen’s kappa coefficient were estimated to evaluate diagnostic values of the tested kits. This study showed that all kits showed 100% specificity. Accuracy, sensitivity and kappa coefficient varied among examined assays. Based on clinical features, LabGunTM COVID-19 Assay by LabGenomics proved to be the most sensitive, the most accurate and most specific. Therefore this assay was used as a reference kit. Conclusion: If things from practice are taken into account, accuracy and reliability of the tested commercial kits can vary compared to those obtained in this study where results were based on ideal functioning of the kits. When choosing the convenient commercial SARS-CoV-2 detection kit using RT-PCR method, many parameters need to be considered.

Aim To analyze an additional set of Y-chromosome genetic markers to acquire a more detailed insight into the diversity of the Croatian population. Methods A total of 518 Yfiler Plus profiles were genotyped. Allele frequencies, haplotype frequencies, and haplotype diversity were calculated by using the STRAF software v. 2.0.4. Genetic distances were quantified by Rst with AMOVA online tool from the YHRD. The evolutionary history was inferred with the neighbor-joining method of phylogenetic tree construction in the MEGAX software. Whit Athey's Haplogroup Predictor v. 5 was used for additional comparison with regional and other European populations. Results A total of 507 haplotypes were used for genetic STR analysis. An interpopulation study on 17 Y-STR markers showed the lowest genetic diversity between the Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian populations and the highest between the Croatian and Irish populations. Additional interpopulation comparison with the original 27 Y-STR markers (for the population with available data) was also performed. A total of 518 haplotypes were used in the determination of haplogroup diversity. Haplogroup I with its sublineage I2a expressed the highest prevalence. The second most prevalent haplogroup was R, with its major sublineage R1a, except for the subpopulation of Hvar, where E1b1b was the second most prevalent haplogroup. Rare haplogroups also confirmed in this study were L, T, and Q. G1 was detected for the first time in the Croatian population. Conclusion We obtained a new insight into the differences between examined subpopulations of Croatia and their possible (dis)similarities with neighboring and distant populations.

Background The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes a respiratory illness named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is one of the main global health problems since 2019. Glycans attached to the Fc portion of immunoglobulin G (IgG) are important modulators of IgG effector functions. Fc region binds to different receptors on the surface of various immune cells, dictating the type of immune response. Here, we performed a large longitudinal study to determine whether the severity and duration of COVID-19 are associated with altered IgG glycosylation. Methods Using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography analysis of released glycans, we analysed the composition of the total IgG N-glycome longitudinally during COVID-19 from four independent cohorts. We analysed 77 severe COVID-19 cases from the HR1 cohort (74% males, median age 72, age IQR 25-80); 31 severe cases in the HR2 cohort (77% males, median age 64, age IQR 41-86), 18 mild COVID-19 cases from the UK cohort (17% males, median age 50, age IQR 26-71) and 28 mild cases from the BiH cohort (71% males, median age 60, age IQR 12-78). Findings Multiple statistically significant changes in IgG glycome composition were observed during severe COVID-19. The most statistically significant changes included increased agalactosylation of IgG (meta-analysis 95% CI [0.03, 0.07], adjusted meta-analysis P= <0.0001), which regulates proinflammatory actions of IgG via complement system activation and indirectly as a lack of sialylation and decreased presence of bisecting N-acetylglucosamine on IgG (meta-analysis 95% CI [-0.11, -0.08], adjusted meta-analysis P= <0.0001), which indirectly affects antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. On the contrary, no statistically significant changes in IgG glycome composition were observed in patients with mild COVID-19. Interpretation The IgG glycome in severe COVID-19 patients is statistically significantly altered in a way that it indicates decreased immunosuppressive action of circulating immunoglobulins. The magnitude of observed changes is associated with the severity of the disease, indicating that aberrant IgG glycome composition or changes in IgG glycosylation may be an important molecular mechanism in COVID-19. Funding This work has been supported in part by Croatian Science Foundation under the project IP-CORONA-2020-04-2052 and Croatian National Centre of Competence in Molecular Diagnostics (The European Structural and Investment Funds grant #KK.01.2.2.03.0006), by the UKRI/MRC (Cov-0331 - MR/V027883/1) and by the National Institutes for Health Research Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre and by Ministry Of Science, Higher Education and Youth Of Canton Sarajevo, grant number 27-02-11-4375-10/21.

Genus Silene (Caryophyllaceae) is very rich in secondary metabolites and has an antiviral, antimalarial, antitumor, antibacterial and antioxidant properties, but Balkan endemic Silene sendtneri (Sendtner's campion) is not analyzed from the aspect of phenolic composition and their biological activities. Evaluation of total phenolic contents (TPC) and total flavonoid contents (TFC), and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of hydromethanolic extracts from inflorescences, stem, rhizome, and seeds of S. sendtneri, was done in this study for the first time. The TPC, TFC, and antioxidant activity (DPPH; 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) were determined by UV/VIS spectrophotometry. Antimicrobial activity was estimated against selected test microorganisms (Staphylococcus epidermididis, Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus, Salmonella abony, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans) using a disc diffusion assay. The inflorescences had the highest (11.587 mg GAEg-1 DW) and rhizome the lowest TPC (2.017 mg GAEg-1 DW). The inflorescences extract exhibited the highest TFC (69.824 mg CEg-1 DW), while TFC was not detected in the rhizome extract. The stem’s extract had the highest antioxidant activity (IC50; 20.51%), while the rhizome had the lowest (61.89%). All extracts showed moderate antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus epidermididis and low activity against the three remaining tested organisms. Antifungal activity of inflorescence and rhizome extracts was moderate. Obtained results provide a basis for further investigations of various S. sendtneri extracts, which can be a potential natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents

The past decade within Bosnia and Herzegovina and thus in the Sarajevo Canton has shown that tourism has become a significant segment of the economy with a pronounced constant positive growth. He is one of the most important trump cards in economic development and positive recognition of the Sarajevo Canton and thus the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper analyzes the current state of sports and recreational tourism in Sarajevo Canton in the period from 2011 to 2021 and its possibilities through the sports and tourism offer. The research covered the administrative borders of Sarajevo Canton, which consists of 9 municipalities: Centar, Hadžići, Ilidža, Ilijaš, Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo, Stari Grad, Trnovo and Vogošća. The paper analyzes the number of registered business entities (tourist units), the number of tourist arrivals (countries from which tourists come and by months of the year), the number of overnight stays, tourist arrivals individually or organized, the analysis of sports facilities and infrastructure for sports and tourism offer (mountaineering, sport climbing, athletic stadiums, swimming pools, bike and mountain bike trails, sports halls, golf courses, mountain walking trails, racetracks (equestrian sports), skating rinks, football stadiums and football fields, ski lifts, ski lifts, snowboard, point and toboggan runs, cross-country skiing, tennis courts). For the purposes of this research, a combination of: primary field research related to the state of sports facilities and sports infrastructure in the Sarajevo Canton as well as a secondary method of data collection through available official data, databases and reports of relevant public, private institutions, media, sports associations. By analyzing the situation and the results we have obtained, we can determine the direction for the development and expansion of services in terms of sports and recreational tourism in Sarajevo Canton. This does not require large investments, especially in the rural parts of Sarajevo Canton, which has all the benefits for further development of sports and recreational forms of offer in the direction of hiking, mountaineering, cycling, running, alpine, touring and Nordic skiing. Sarajevo Canton with its sports and competitive heritage as well as the existing specific sports infrastructure and facilities provide a great opportunity for tourism development and positive recognition of the Canton and the city of Sarajevo. Keywords: Seasonality, sports facilities, sports infrastructure, sports and recreational services and sports programs.