In this paper, we show our novel teleoperation system that mediates proximity perception at the slave system as tactile information to the user. We have equipped a robot’s end-effector with a capacitive proximity sensor array. Based on the proximity information, tactile feedback is generated for the user via a tactile display. Thus, the user can feel some of an object’s features through his fingers, without the need for establishing contact between the slave system and the object. In our setting, the proximity sensing-based feedback complements the visual feedback provided by a workspace camera and a robot tool camera. Both the sensor array and the tactile display, have a spatial resolution of 4×4. To evaluate the impact, we conducted a user study covering scenarios with visual occlusion and distortion in pre-touch and pre-manipulation phases. The study revealed an improvement in the accuracy of positioning of the end-effector when the visual and the tactile feedback were both provided to the user. The study also showed high acceptance of the new modality by the users.

Abstract In the most developed countries the first estimations of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are available 30 days after the end of the reference quarter. In this paper, possibilities of creating an econometric model for making short-term forecasts of GDP in B&H have been explored. The database consists of more than 100 daily, monthly and quarterly time series for the period 2006q1-2016q4. The aim of this study was to estimate and validate different factor models. Due to the length limit of the series, the factor analysis included 12 time series which had a correlation coefficient with a quarterly GDP at the absolute value greater than 0.8. The principal component analysis (PCA) and the orthogonal varimax rotation of the initial solution were applied. Three principal components are extracted from the set of the series, thus together accounting for 73.34% of the total variability of the given set of series. The final choice of the model for forecasting quarterly B&H GDP was selected based on a comparative analysis of the predictive efficiency of the analysed models for the in-sample period and for the out-of-sample period. The unbiasedness and efficiency of individual forecasts were tested using the Mincer-Zarnowitz regression, while a comparison of the accuracy of forecast of two models was tested by the Diebold-Mariano test. We have examined the justification of a combination of two forecasts using the Granger-Ramanathan regression. A factor model involving three factors has shown to be the most efficient factor model for forecasting quarterly B&H GDP.

Abstract This paper analyses the inefficiency of social services targeting in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H). Using official statistics microdata of the Household Budget Survey 2015, three models of social minimum in FB&H were constructed: extreme and general poverty, and the model with multidimensional poverty aspects. The analysis of features of poor household categories showed that the most vulnerable residents of FB&H are not beneficiaries of permanent financial assistance. The reason for such an inefficient targeting was recognized in the Federal Law on Principles of Social Care, Care for the War-Disabled Civilians and Care for Families with Children that stipulates that only persons and families that (cumulatively): are incapable for work, have insufficient income, and there are no family members who are legally obligated to support them. The results indicated a high inconsistency in the legal criteria for qualification, and also in the amounts of permanent social assistance among cantons. The Proxy Means Test (PMT) Model is offered as one of the possible solutions for the improvement of social services targeting in FB&H. Given the importance of efficiency of targeting in social services, the research results could be useful, for both, vulnerable segments of the society and federal and cantonal ministries of labour and social affairs, in the process of targeting the households qualified for social support programmes.

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, global authorities have imposed rules of social distancing that directly influence overall physical activity in populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the trends of changes in physical-activity levels (PALs) in adolescents and factors that may be associated with PALs among the studied boys and girls. Methods: Participants in this prospective study comprised 388 adolescents (126 females; mean age: 16.4 ± 1.9 years) from southern Croatia who were tested at a baseline (before the imposed rules of social distancing) and at a follow-up measurement (three weeks after the initiation). Baseline testing included anthropometric variables, variables of fitness status (done at the beginning of the school year), and PALs. At the follow-up, participants were tested on PALs. PALs were evaluated over an online platform using the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents. Results: A significant decrease of PALs was evidenced for the total sample (t-test = 3.46, p < 0.001), which was primarily influenced by a significant decrease of PALs in boys (t-test = 5.15, p < 0.001). The fitness status (jumping capacity, abdominal strength, aerobic endurance, and anaerobic endurance) was systematically positively correlated with PALs at the baseline and follow-up among boys and girls, with the most evident association between aerobic and anaerobic endurance capacities and PALs. Correlations between anthropometric and fitness variables with changes in physical activity (e.g., the difference between baseline and follow-up PALs) were negligible. Conclusions: Differences in PAL changes between genders were probably related to the fact that PALs among boys were mostly related to participation in organized sports. Correlations between baseline fitness status and PALs indicated the importance of overall physical literacy in preserving PALs in challenging circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic observed here.

Although thousands of solid tumors have been sequenced to date, a fundamental under-sampling bias is inherent in current methodologies. This is caused by a tissue sample input of fixed dimensions (e.g., 6 mm biopsy), which becomes grossly under-powered as tumor volume scales. Here, we demonstrate representative sequencing (Rep-Seq) as a new method to achieve unbiased tumor tissue sampling. Rep-Seq uses fixed residual tumor material, which is homogenized and subjected to next-generation sequencing. Analysis of intratumor tumor mutation burden (TMB) variability shows a high level of misclassification using current single-biopsy methods, with 20% of lung and 52% of bladder tumors having at least one biopsy with high TMB but low clonal TMB overall. Misclassification rates by contrast are reduced to 2% (lung) and 4% (bladder) when a more representative sampling methodology is used. Rep-Seq offers an improved sampling protocol for tumor profiling, with significant potential for improved clinical utility and more accurate deconvolution of clonal structure.

The reliability of the operations of the high-voltage circuit breaker is the key to the stable power system, so it’s fault diagnosis and condition assessment it is of great significance. Considering that high-voltage circuit breaker vibration fingerprints contain valuable information about its mechanical integrity and that the vibration measurements are non-invasive, this paper presents the algorithm for the analysis of residual life of a high-voltage circuit breaker. The algorithm is based on the variational mode decomposition (VMD) and Shannon information entropy mean (EM) in order to obtain indices that are used as an indicator of the circuit breaker structural deterioration.

A semi-automated and sensitive method was developed for simultaneous determination of the six most consumed artificial sweeteners (AS) in surface waters using thin-film solid-phase microextraction (TF-SPME) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A triple quadrupole mass spectrometer and an electrospray ionization source (ESI-MS) run in negative ionization and multiple reaction monitoring modes were employed for instrumental analysis. The TF-SPME method was optimized for the extraction phase, sample pH, desorption solvent, extraction time, and desorption time. In-house-synthetized-hydrophilic-lipophilic balance weak anion exchange (HLB-WAX) particles imbedded within a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) binder were selected as the extraction phase for the thin-film coating due to their cost-effectiveness and enhanced sensitivity for artificial sweeteners. Suitable analytical parameters that include linearity (R2 > 0.9914), recovery > 80%, inter, and intra-reproducibility less than 18% were obtained for the AS compounds studied. The developed method estimated limits of detection (LODs) ranging from 0.004 to 0.038 ng mL-1 The SPME method was successfully applied for the determination of ultra-trace levels of AS in water samples collected from Grand River (Ontario, Canada), downstream of three municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Concentrations ranging from 0.03 to 20.3 ng mL-1 were found for the AS compounds studied.

Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have significantly improved the outcome in metastatic cutaneous melanoma (CM). However, therapy response is limited to subgroups of patients and clinically useful predictive biomarkers are lacking. Methods To discover treatment-related systemic changes in plasma and potential biomarkers associated with treatment outcome, we analyzed serial plasma samples from 24 patients with metastatic CM, collected before and during ICI treatment, with mass-spectrometry-based global proteomics (high-resolution isoelectric focusing liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (HiRIEF LC-MS/MS)) and targeted proteomics with proximity extension assays (PEAs). In addition, we analyzed plasma proteomes of 24 patients with metastatic CM treated with mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitors (MAPKis), to pinpoint changes in protein plasma levels specific to the ICI treatment. To detect plasma proteins associated with treatment response, we performed stratified analyses in anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD-1) responders and non-responders. In addition, we analyzed the association between protein plasma levels and progression-free survival (PFS) by Cox proportional hazards models. Results Unbiased HiRIEF LC-MS/MS-based proteomics showed plasma levels’ alterations related to anti-PD-1 treatment in 80 out of 1160 quantified proteins. Circulating PD-1 had the highest increase during anti-PD-1 treatment (log2-FC=2.03, p=0.0008) and in anti-PD-1 responders (log2-FC=2.09, p=0.005), but did not change in the MAPKis cohort. Targeted, antibody-based proteomics by PEA confirmed this observation. Anti-PD-1 responders had an increase in plasma proteins involved in T-cell response, neutrophil degranulation, inflammation, cell adhesion, and immune suppression. Furthermore, we discovered new associations between plasma proteins (eg, interleukin 6, interleukin 10, proline-rich acidic protein 1, desmocollin 3, C-C motif chemokine ligands 2, 3 and 4, vascular endothelial growth factor A) and PFS, which may serve as predictive biomarkers. Conclusions We detected an increase in circulating PD-1 during anti-PD-1 treatment, as well as diverse immune plasma proteomic signatures in anti-PD-1 responders. This study demonstrates the potential of plasma proteomics as a liquid biopsy method and in discovery of putative predictive biomarkers for anti-PD-1 treatment in metastatic CM.

The EU has long been suffering a legitimacy crisis. In this article we argue that multilingual Europarties, that is, European political parties operating in all the various languages spoken by their members via interpreting and translation, rather than resorting to a lingua franca, could contribute to providing an effective democratic linkage between EU citizens and EU institutions. Moreover, by drawing inspiration from an analysis of Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, we argue that centripetal institutions such as an EU-wide electoral district, presidentialism, and direct democracy could provide favourable institutional conditions for the development of such multilingual Europarties.

IrO 2 is the most stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst in acidic media and it has been widely used as co-catalyst to mitigate cell reversal damages in the anode of PEM fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this study, a mechanistic understanding of the degradation of an IrO 2 anode co-catalyst under transient operation of a PEMFC is provided. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in reductive atmosphere (3.3 vol.% H 2 /Ar) shows that IrO 2 is not stable in H 2 containing atmosphere at operational temperatures of PEMFCs. By conducting a series of physical-chemical and electrochemical analyses, it is proven that H 2 under the operating conditions in a PEMFC anode can chemically reduce a few outer monolayers of the surface of IrO 2 nanoparticles to metallic Ir. The metallic Ir formed on the IrO 2 surface can then dissolve during fuel cell start-up/shut-down (SUSD) cycles. At least part of the dissolved Ir species formed in the anode electrode are shown to diffuse through the membrane to the cathode electrode, where they lead to a deterioration of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of the Pt cathode catalyst. The consequences of Ir dissolution on the cell reversal tolerance of the anode are also discussed.

Abstract Objectives Psychotic disorders have large treatment gap in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in South-Eastern Europe, where up to 45% of affected people do not receive care for their condition. This study will assess the implementation of a generic psychosocial intervention called DIALOG+ in mental health care services and its effectiveness at improving patients’ clinical and social outcomes. Methods This is a protocol for a multi-country, pragmatic, hybrid effectiveness–implementation, cluster-randomised, clinical trial. The trial aims to recruit 80 clinicians and 400 patients across 5 South-Eastern European LMICs: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia and Serbia. Clusters are clinicians working with patients with psychosis, and each clinician will deliver the intervention to five patients. After patient baseline assessments, clinicians will be randomly assigned to either the DIALOG+ intervention or treatment as usual, with an allocation ratio of 1:1. The intervention will be delivered six times over 12 months during routine clinical meetings. TThe primary outcome measure is the quality of life at 12 months [Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA)]; the secondary outcomes include mental health symptoms [Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)], satisfaction with services [Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8)] and economic costs at 12 months [based on Client Service Receipt Inventory (CSRI), EQ-5D-5L and Recovering Quality of Life (ReQOL-10)]. The study will assess the intervention fidelity and the experience of clinicians and patients’ about implementing DIALOG+ in real-life mental health care settings. In the health economic assessment, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio is calculated with effectiveness measured by quality-adjusted life year. Data will also be collected on sustainability and reach to inform guidelines for potentially scaling up and implementing the intervention widely. Conclusion: The study is expected to generate new scientific knowledge on the treatment of people with psychosis in health care systems with limited resources. The learning from LMICs could potentially help other countries to expand the access to care and alleviate the suffering of patients with psychosis and their families. Trial registration: ISRCTN 11913964

Abstract This article reframes the formation of the Ottoman-Habsburg frontier after 1699 in social historical terms. By going beyond diplomatic and military factors, it identifies how the contraction of Ottoman borders affected taxation, landholding, and Muslim-Christian relations in Bosnia. The article argues that peasants in Ottoman Bosnia experienced the mounting pressures of increasing taxation, manipulation over landownership, and religiously inflected hostility, often driven by those Muslim noblemen who tried to capitalize on the destabilizing wake of several wars that the Ottoman Empire fought with the Habsburg, Venetian, and Russian states in the eighteenth century. Through these processes, by the end of the century the meaning of the reaya or raya—an Ottoman term for taxpaying “subjects” that theoretically applied to all denominations, including Muslims—had become synonymous with “Christians,” acquiring a new political significance.