Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis is a simple, reproducible, rapid, and effective method, and therefore, has attracted considerable interest among scientists in the field of synthesis not only of iron oxide but also of other metal oxides. This method has been used for the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles, hematite (α-Fe2O3), and goethite (α-FeOOH) in strongly alkaline media with iron(III) chloride (FeCl3) as precursor under microwave emission of 850 W. In this work, the effect on the size, shape, and composition of the final product was investigated by changing the conditions, such as shortening the synthesis time, increasing the synthesis temperature, and adding various substances to the synthesis pathway. Samples synthesized at 200 °C for 20 min by increasing the added percentage of polyethylene glycol (PEG), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), rosemary essential oil and lavender essential oil promote goethite-to-hematite transformation, while N-guanylurea sulfate (NGS) and sage essential oil behave differently. The aforementioned substances added at 260 °C resulted in a decrease in particle size, but pure hematite was obtained, regardless of the type of the substances added or the decrease in synthesis time from 20 min to 5 min. Furthermore, the use of essential oils rather than surfactants in this study was presented as a novel, environmentally friendly method of iron oxide synthesis.

This research work included bioinformatics modeling of the dipotassium-trioxohydroxytetrafluorotriborate-halogenated boroxine molecule, as well as simulation and prediction of structural interactions between the halogenated boroxine molecule, human carbonic anhydrase, and human catalase structures. Using computational methods, we tried to confirm the inhibitory effect of halogenated boroxine on the active sites of these previously mentioned enzymes. The three-dimensional crystal structures of human catalase (PDB ID: 1DGB) and human carbonic anhydrase (PDB ID: 6FE2) were retrieved from RCSB Protein Data Bank and the protein preparation was performed using AutoDock Tools. ACD/ChemSketch and ChemDoodle were used for creating the three-dimensional structure of halogenated boroxine. Molecular docking was performed using AutoDock Vina, while the results were visualized using PyMOL. Results obtained in this research are showing evidence that there are interactions between the halogenated boroxine molecule and both previously mentioned proteins (human carbonic anhydrase and human catalase) in their active sites, which led us to the conclusion that the inhibitory function of halogenated boroxine has been confirmed. These findings could be an important step in determining the exact mechanisms of inhibitory activity and will hopefully serve in further research purposes of complex pharmacogenomics studies.

The productivity, health, and well-being of office workers are known to be influenced by the indoor thermal conditions, most significantly the temperature and air humidity. This article is based on measurements and calculated predictions, as well as surveys of the employees in a newly renovated office building in Vienna, Austria. The renovation measures include street-side facade greening. The aim of this study was to determine the possible effects these renovation measures have on thermal comfort inside the building. The evaluation is carried out in accordance with the standards based on the predicted mean vote (PMV), calculated with the collected measurement data. Based on the survey, the calculation results are compared with the subjective perception of the employees. Even though the measurements and the survey were carried out only one year after the renovation, about 70% of the employees’ statements speak about noticeable positive changes due to the renovation measures. Regarding daylight and artificial lighting conditions, a total of 80% of employees are neutral or satisfied. The majority also expresses neutrality or satisfaction regarding spatial conditions and air quality. The satisfaction of the employees is reflected in their work performance. The goal is therefore to achieve the highest possible satisfaction of the building’s users.

As a typical Internet of Things application, network traffic prediction (NTP) plays a decisive role in congestion control, resource allocation, and anomaly detection. The trend of network traffic is different at different scales, so multiscale is an important characteristic of network traffic. In addition, the network traffic is nonlinear on each scale and dependent between scales. The existing NTP methods cannot comprehensively consider these characteristics, which limits their performance. In view of the characteristics of network traffic, such as multiscale, nonlinearity, and scale dependence, this article proposes a new multiscale NTP method based on a deep echo-state network (ESN). First, a multiscale parallel layered structure based on deep ESN is designed to fully consider the influence of each scale on the prediction result and then reduce the prediction error. Second, a feature extraction algorithm is proposed to improve the nonlinear approximation ability by extracting more abundant dynamic features with multiple reservoirs. Third, an NTP model based on scale dependence is proposed to reduce the influence from partial scale missing and then improve the prediction accuracy. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that compared with the state-of-the-art NTP methods, the proposed method significantly improves the prediction performance of network traffic with a slight increase in running time.

The global pandemic of the infectious disease coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a predominantly respiratory disease. Gastrointestinal symptoms occur in 15-20% of patients with COVID-19, however, there have not been many case reports of acute pancreatitis in patients with COVID-19. We presented the case of a 28-year-old girl suffering from COVID-19 with acute pancreatitis in the absence of other known etiological risk factors for pancreatitis. Laboratory analysis revealed a marked elevation of lipase and amylase. CT of the abdomen showed an edematous pancreas with diffuse enlargement. She was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis due to COVID-19 after carefully ruling out other causes. She was managed symptomatically, and improvement in her clinical condition was observed and was discharged with outpatient follow-up.

OBJECTIVE Eagle syndrome or styloid process syndrome is a clinical condition of complex aetiology. Since, as a consequence of vascular compression,due to the length of the styloid process and its nearness to the internal carotid artery,it can lead to vertigo. Vertigo may be the only symptom of stylocarotid syndrome and it is extremely challenging diagnose.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that measures the lengths of styloid process on the Croatian population's,and possible influence of styloid process length on isolated vertigo of unknown aetiology. METHODS This study included 829 subjects who were divided into two groups.The first group was the control group, consisting of 800 subjects.The second group, study group, consisted of 29 subjects who suffered from the vertigo of unknown aetiology. RESULTS The statistically significant difference between the study and the control group was observed in the length of the styloid process, and in the closest distance of the styloid process from the carotid artery. CONCLUSIONS The prolonged styloid process and its close association with the internal carotid artery may affect vertigo of unknown aetiology and should be clinically and radiographically investigated in cases of unexplained vertigo as an isolated and only symptom within stylocarotid syndrome.

Origins debates regarding Covid-19 are gaining momentum again. In light of the continued infections and deaths of Covid-19 seen in countries rich and poor, rather than focusing the approach with “whodunit”, developing solutions that can help societies become better prepared for future pandemics might be a more meaningful way to move forward. In this paper, we propose a solution that could help society better predict and prevent future pandemics. A system could allow humans to anonymously report potential infectious disease outbreaks without fearing backlash or prejudice and could automatically surveil for potential disease transfers or virus leaks. The proposed autonomous and anonymous pandemic reporting and surveillance system has the potential to help health officials locate infectious disease outbreaks before they form into pandemics. And in turn, it better prevents future pandemics and avoids Covid-19 origins debates.

With its broad antimicrobial spectrum and non-specific mode of action via membrane disruption, any resistance to octenidine (OCT) seems unlikely and has not been observed in clinical settings so far. In this study, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of OCT against Escherichia coli and mutants lacking specific lipid head groups which, due to altered membrane properties, might be the root cause for resistance development of membrane-active compounds. Furthermore, we aimed to test its efficacy under different experimental conditions including different solvents for OCT, bacterial concentration and methods for analysis. Our primary goal was to estimate how many OCT molecules are needed to kill one bacterium. We performed susceptibility assays by observing bacterial growth behavior, using a Bioscreen in an analogous manner for every condition. The growth curves were recorded for 20 h at 420–580 nm in presence of different OCT concentrations and were used to assess the inhibitory concentrations (IC100%) for OCT. Bacterial concentrations given in cell numbers were determined, followed by Bioscreen measurement by manual colony counting on agar plates and QUANTOMTM cell staining. This indicated a significant variance between both methods, which influenced IC100% of OCT, especially when used at low doses. The binding capacity of OCT to E. coli was investigated by measuring UV-absorbance of OCT exposed to bacteria and a common thermodynamic framework based on Bioscreen measurements. Results showed that OCT’s antimicrobial activity in E. coli is not affected by changes at the membrane level but strongly dependent on experimental settings in respect to solvents and applied bacterial counts. More OCT was required when the active was dissolved in phosphate or Hepes buffers instead of water and when higher bacterial concentration was used. Furthermore, binding studies revealed that 107–108 OCT molecules bind to bacteria, which is necessary for the saturation of the bacterial surface to initiate the killing cascade. Our results clearly demonstrate that in vitro data, depending on the applied materials and the methods for determination of IC100%, can easily be misinterpreted as reduced bacterial susceptibility towards OCT.

Background and objectives: the aim of this study was to analyse the utilisation of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) during a 12-year period and to show the characteristics and patterns of their prescribing. Materials and methods: firstly, in the pharmacoepidemiological analyses the ATC/DDD methodology was used to assess the utilisation of PPIs in the Republic of Srpska. The annual PPI utilisation was expressed as a number of DDD/1000 inhabitants/year. Secondly, the cross-sectional surveys were used to reveal the characteristics of PPIs prescribing and medicines use, namely the dose, duration and indication, and possible adverse reactions. For the purposes of the surveys, the adapted version of questionnaires related to physicians’ and patients’ perspectives of medicines prescribing and use were performed. Results: the utilisation of medicines for alimentary tract and metabolism (group A/ATC classification) increased by almost threefold in a 12-year period, which was consistent with the total medicine utilisation. Pantoprazole was the most prescribed medicine among the PPIs. With the exclusion of PPIs in the therapy of Helicobacter pylori eradication, more than half of family physicians prescribed PPIs with antibiotics, and only 53/239 physicians, noticed some adverse reactions of PPIs in their patients. Most of the patients knew how to use PPIs and were taking these medicines in recommended daily doses, but approximately 45% of them were using PPIs for a long period of time (>6 months). Conclusions: the overuse of PPIs is a major concern due to potential serious adverse reactions, especially in elderly patients and in a case of prolonged exposure.