OBRAZOVANjE, NAUKA I PROIZVODNjA HRANE

U prethodnoj godini, u izdanju Akademije nauka i umjetnosti Republike Srpske izašla je iz štampe monografija „Obrazovanje, nauka i proizvodnja hrane“,autora akademika Vaskrsija Janjića. Radi se o izuzetno vrijednom dijelu u koje je autor uložio ogroman rad i znanje pa je tako stvorio djelo neobično, kompleksno i sadržajno kako po koncepciji, tako i po sadržini i prilazu u obradi pojedinih, izuzetno značajnih, dijelova knjige. Takva djela nisam imao priliku nikada da pročitam i zato mi je posebno drago da je akademik Janjić našao vremena i snage da jedno takvo djelo napiše i objavi. Ujedno mislim da takvo djelo rijetko ko može da napiše, jer je za takvo pisanje potreban poseban dar, ogromno znanje i iskustvo, a rijetki su istraživači koji raspolažu sa svim tim. Ono je pisano sa takvim jezikom i stilom, a plus toga u njega su utkana sva, nemala, autorova znanja i ogromno eksperimentalno iskustvo, kao i iskustvo u vrijednovanju naučnog rada u različitim naučnim disciplinama, tako da će svako onaj ko  bude čitao  ovo djelo osijetiti zadovoljstvo i samopouzdanje. Zahvaljujući višedecenijskom radu na ovom djelu autor je prikazao cijelokupno stanje u obrazovanju, nauci i proizvodnji hrane ne samo u našoj zemlji nego i u okruženju, na cijelom evropskom i svijetskom prostoru. Za svaku i najmanju stvar o kojoj se danas vode žučne akademske rasprave autor je dao i obrazložio svoj stav i tako stvorio djelo koje i trebaju da stvaraju naši akademici. Djelo je tako bogato snabdjeveno podacima, da će ono biti nepresušan i trajan izvor podataka za sve one koji se ovim problemima bave, ali i cijelokupnoj našoj naučnoj, stručnoj i upravnoj javnosti.           Monografija se sastoji od tri povezane cijeline: obrazovanja, nauke i proizvodnje hrane. Naslov i sadržina djela su neobični. Ali, autor polazi od toga da je obrazovanje neophodno svakom našem čovjeku, a isto tako da, danas izuzetno, obrazovani ljudi mogu da se bave naukom. Isto tako, sve što se istraži danas se želi što pre primijeniti, a primjena se zasniva na nauci i njenoj što potpunijoj i efikasnijoj aktivnosti. Ovo naročito važi za proizvodnju hrane koja je danas zasnovana na najvišim tehnološkim dostignućima. Ako samo pogledamo proizvodnju hrane zasnovane na korišćenju genetički modifikovanih biljaka onda ćemo se upoznati sa kakvim se problemima današnji svijet sreo. Taj izazovni problem koji danas zaokuplja najveće autoritete i najbogatije kompanije u svijetu predmet su najozbiljnijih razmatranja autora, pogotovo što su genetički modifikovane biljke molekularno mijenjane zbog upotrebe herbicida, a u toj oblasti akademik Janjić poznat izvan granice naše zemlje.Monografija  je napisana  na 678 stranica teksta (skraćeni A4 format). Ona ima više od 300 tabela, 157 grafikona, 21 shemu, 8 mapa i 74 slike. Bogato je literaturno obrađena i sadrži preko 778 literaturnih izvora i najnoviju statističku građu OECD, FAO, UNESCO, naših statističkih Zavoda, Zavoda za intelektualnu svojinu i mnogih drugih. Zbog bogate i specifične ilustracije i grafičke obrade  monografija je štampana u boji na 90 gramskom mat kunsdruk papiru.Autor je ovo djelo posvetio Akademiji u povodu ovogodišnje proslave 20 godina od formiranja i rada Akademije.         Na kraju, može se istaći da se radi o izuzetnom djelu, velike vrijednosti, neophodnog svakom naučnom radniku i istraživaču ma koje on struke bio. Ono će, takođe, popuniti prazninu koja u ovoj oblasti već duži niz postoji, a pomoći će i mladim istraživačima da se upoznaju sa problemima, izazovima i perspektivama obrazovanja, nauke i proizvodnje hrane. Svako onaj ko bude čitao ovo djelo osijetiće snagu autora, ali i njegovu volju da ga najiskrenije i najpouzdanije upozna sa svim onim sa čime će sresti u životu  ili odmah poslije  zaposlenja. Akademija ima sreću i posebno zadovoljstvo što  se ovo djelo pojavilo u vrijeme proslave 20 godina  od njenog  osnivanja i rada

Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis is prevalent in cardiorenal patients but not associated with left ventricular function and myocardial fibrosis as assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) is common in cardiovascular diseases and associated with hypertension, renal dysfunction and/or heart failure. There is a paucity of data about the prevalence and the role of ARAS in the pathophysiology of combined chronic heart failure (CHF) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). We investigated the prevalence in patients with combined CHF/CKD and its association with renal function, cardiac dysfunction and the presence and extent of myocardial fibrosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The EPOCARES study (ClinTrialsNCT00356733) investigates the role of erythropoietin in anaemic patients with combined CHF/CKD. Eligible subjects underwent combined cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI), including late gadolinium enhancement, with magnetic resonance angiography of the renal arteries (MRA).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>MR study was performed in 37 patients (median age 74 years, eGFR 37.4 ± 15.6 ml/min, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 43.3 ± 11.2%), of which 21 (56.8%) had ARAS (defined as stenosis >50%). Of these 21 subjects, 8 (21.6%) had more severe ARAS >70% and 8 (21.6%) had a bilateral ARAS >50% (or previous bilateral PTA). There were no differences in age, NT-proBNP levels and medication profile between patients with ARAS versus those without. Renal function declined with the severity of ARAS (p = 0.03), although this was not significantly different between patients with ARAS versus those without. Diabetes mellitus was more prevalent in patients without ARAS (56.3%) against those with ARAS (23.8%) (p = 0.04). The presence and extent of late gadolinium enhancement, depicting myocardial fibrosis, did not differ (p = 0.80), nor did end diastolic volume (p = 0.60), left ventricular mass index (p = 0.11) or LVEF (p = 0.15). Neither was there a difference in the presence of an ischemic pattern of late enhancement in patients with ARAS versus those without.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>ARAS is prevalent in combined CHF/CKD and its severity is associated with a decline in renal function. However, its presence does not correlate with a worse LVEF, a higher left ventricular mass or with the presence and extent of myocardial fibrosis. Further research is required for the role of ARAS in the pathophysiology of combined chronic heart and renal failure.</p

Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape

Wildlife must adapt to human presence to survive in the Anthropocene, so it is critical to understand species responses to humans in different contexts. We used camera trapping as a lens to view mammal responses to changes in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 163 species sampled in 102 projects around the world, changes in the amount and timing of animal activity varied widely. Under higher human activity, mammals were less active in undeveloped areas but unexpectedly more active in developed areas while exhibiting greater nocturnality. Carnivores were most sensitive, showing the strongest decreases in activity and greatest increases in nocturnality. Wildlife managers must consider how habituation and uneven sensitivity across species may cause fundamental differences in human–wildlife interactions along gradients of human influence.Peer reviewe

Sex- and age-related differences in the management and outcomes of chronic heart failure: an analysis of patients from the ESC HFA EORP Heart Failure Long-Term Registry

Aims: This study aimed to assess age- and sex-related differences in management and 1-year risk for all-cause mortality and hospitalization in chronic heart failure (HF) patients. Methods and results: Of 16 354 patients included in the European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure Long-Term Registry, 9428 chronic HF patients were analysed [median age: 66 years; 28.5% women; mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 37%]. Rates of use of guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) were high (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, beta-blockers and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists: 85.7%, 88.7% and 58.8%, respectively). Crude GDMT utilization rates were lower in women than in men (all differences: P\ua0 64 0.001), and GDMT use became lower with ageing in both sexes, at baseline and at 1-year follow-up. Sex was not an independent predictor of GDMT prescription; however, age >75 years was a significant predictor of GDMT underutilization. Rates of all-cause mortality were lower in women than in men (7.1% vs. 8.7%; P\ua0=\ua00.015), as were rates of all-cause hospitalization (21.9% vs. 27.3%; P\ua075 years. Conclusions: There was a decline in GDMT use with advanced age in both sexes. Sex was not an independent predictor of GDMT or adverse outcomes. However, age >75 years independently predicted lower GDMT use and higher all-cause mortality in patients with LVEF 6445%

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Reinventing foreign aid for inclusive and sustainable development: a survey

This survey essay reviews over 200 papers in arguing that in order to achieve sustainable and inclusive development, foreign aid should not orient developing countries towards industrialisation in the perspective of Kuznets but in the view of Piketty. Abandoning the former’s view that inequality will fall with progress in industrialisation and placing more emphasis on inequality in foreign aid policy will lead to more sustainable development outcomes. Inter alia: mitigate short-term poverty; address concerns of burgeoning population growth; train recipient governments on inclusive development; fight corruption and mismanagement and; avoid the shortfalls of celebrated Kuznets’ conjectures. We discuss how the essay addresses post-2015 development challenges and provide foreign aid policy instruments with which discussed objectives can be achieved. In summary, the essay provides useful policy measures to avoid past pitfalls. ‘Output may be growing, and yet the mass of the people may be becoming poorer’ (Lewis, 1955). ‘Lewis led all developing countries to water, proverbially speaking, some African countries have so far chosen not to drink’ (Amavilah, 2014). Piketty (2014) has led all developing countries to the stream again and a challenging policy syndrome of our time is how foreign aid can help them to drink

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015

Cardiopoietic cell therapy for advanced ischemic heart failure: results at 39 weeks of the prospective, randomized, double blind, sham-controlled CHART-1 clinical trial

Cardiopoietic cells, produced through cardiogenic conditioning of patients' mesenchymal stem cells, have shown preliminary efficacy. The Congestive Heart Failure Cardiopoietic Regenerative Therapy (CHART-1) trial aimed to validate cardiopoiesis-based biotherapy in a larger heart failure cohort