Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of the larynx

Background/Aim. Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) of the larynx is a rare borderline lesion composed of myofibroblastic and inflammatory cells. Case report. We presented a case of 77-year-old male with hoarseness for about three months. Laryngoscopy showed a polypoid tumor originated from the anterior commissure with glottic projection. Grossly, the tumor was 22 × 15 mm, whitish, oval nodus with firm consistency. Histologically, the lesion was composed of spindled to stellate cells arranged in a fascicular to storiform pattern and inflammatory cells: lymphocytes, histiocytes, plasma cells and neutrophils. The stroma was fibromyxoid and collagenous. Immunohistochemically, tumor cells showed strong positivity for actin and vimentin and negativity for cytokeratin, CD34, S100 and desmin. The proliferation (Ki67) was less than 10%. Conclusion. Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor may be mistaken as a malignancy and the differential diagnosis can be difficult without immunohistochemistry. It is critical to recognize this uncommon entity to avoid unnecessary aggressive treatment

Attitudes regarding the national forensic DNA database: Survey data from the general public, prison inmates and prosecutors' offices in the Republic of Serbia

Worldwide, the establishment of national forensic DNA databases has transformed personal identification in the criminal justice system over the past two decades. It has also stimulated much debate centering on ethical issues, human rights, individual privacy, lack of safeguards and other standards. Therefore, a balance between effectiveness and intrusiveness of a national DNA repository is an imperative and needs to be achieved through a suitable legal framework. On its path to the European Union (EU), the Republic of Serbia is required to harmonize its national policies and legislation with the EU. Specifically, Chapter 24 of the EU acquis communautaire (Justice, Freedom and Security) stipulates the compulsory creation of a forensic DNA registry and adoption of corresponding legislation. This process is expected to occur in 2016. Thus, in light of launching the national DNA database, the goal of this work is to instigate a consultation with the Serbian public regarding their views on various aspects of the forensic DNA databank. Importantly, this study specifically assessed the opinions of distinct categories of citizens, including the general public, the prosecutors' offices staff, prisoners, prison guards, and students majoring in criminalistics. Our findings set a baseline for Serbian attitudes towards DNA databank custody, DNA sample and profile inclusion and retention criteria, ethical issues and concerns. Furthermore, results clearly demonstrate a permissive outlook of the respondents who are professional "beneficiaries" of genetic profiling and a restrictive position taken by the respondents whose genetic material has been acquired by the government. We believe that this opinion poll will be essential in discussions regarding a national DNA database, as well as in motivating further research on the reasons behind the observed views and subsequent development of educational strategies. All of these are, in turn, expected to aid the creation of suitable legislation and to increase societal confidence that the repository will be used in the legal system without interference with individual rights and freedoms

Synthetic vs natural scaffolds for human limbal stem cells

Aim To investigate the impact of synthetic electrospun polyurethane (PU) and polycaprolactone (PCL) nanoscaffolds, before and after hydrolytic surface modification, on viability and differentiation of cultured human eye epithelial cells, in comparison with natural scaffolds: fibrin and human amniotic membrane. Methods Human placenta was taken at elective cesarean delivery. Fibrin scaffolds were prepared from commercial fibrin glue kits. Nanoscaffolds were fabricated by electrospinning. Limbal cells were isolated from surpluses of human cadaveric cornea and seeded on feeder 3T3 cells. The scaffolds used for viability testing and immunofluorescence analysis were amniotic membrane, fibrin, PU, and PCL nanoscaffolds, with or without prior NaOH treatment. Results Scanning electron microscope photographs of all tested scaffolds showed good colony spreading of seeded limbal cells. There was a significant difference in viability performance between cells with highest viability cultured on tissue culture plastic and cells cultured on all other scaffolds. On the other hand, electrospun PU, PCL, and electrospun PCL treated with NaOH had more than 80% of limbal cells positive for stem cell marker p63 compared to only 27%of p63 positive cells on fibrin. Conclusion Natural scaffolds, fibrin and amniotic membrane, showed better cell viability than electrospun scaffolds. On the contrary, high percentages of p63 positive cells obtained on these scaffolds still makes them good candidates for efficient delivery systems for therapeutic purpose

Validation of habituation principle within the method of adaptive stimulation

Сваки напредак у правцу поузданог откривања лажи више је него добродошао - имајући у виду да је, у развојном и функционалном смислу, лагање значајан когнитивни процес, са потенцијално веома битним практичним последицама како на личном, тако и на опште друштвеном плану. С обзиром да су индикатори лагања посредни, закључке у вези са овом појавом најчешће доносимо на основу мерења емоционалне реактивности - побуђеног стања организма које настаје као психофизиолошки одговор на свесну лаж. Досадашња мерења емоционалне реактивности у условима лагања показују да њихова поузданост варира услед недовољне контроле експерименталне ситуације. Наиме, приступ мерењу који је до сада коришћен за истраживања на ову тему, није у стању да у потпуности реши проблем утицаја високог когнитивног оптерећења у реалним ситуацијама лагања на повећану реактивност испитаника. У реалној ситуацији лагања, испитаник је углавном преплављен стресом без обзира на кривицу; из истог разлога, сваки стимулус у тесту, и онај који је у вези са лагањем и онај који то није, у одређеној мери доводи до реакције испитаника. Други значајан извор проблема у класичним мерењима ове врсте јесте дужина интерстимулусног интервала задавања и мерења стимулуса (15 - 25 секунди). Ово време далеко превазилази време когнитивне обраде презентованих дражи и ствара услове за њихову додатну спонтану когнитивну обраду, која је изван контроле испитивача и директно утиче на резултате мерења. Дугачак интерстимулусни интервал пружа и реалну могућности за коришћење противмера од стране испитаника. Из ових разлога, у неким мерењима не може се са сигурношћу закључити шта је узрок измерене реакције: да ли је она и у којој мери последица излагања релевантне тестовне дражи или је последица искривљавања и обрађивања садржаја те дражи на неконтролисан начин. Оваква неселективна и неконтролисана реактивност испитаника осим што усложњава, отежава и понекад онемогућава тумачење добијених реакција, доводи и до наглашавања субјективног фактора у мерењу реактивности у условима лагања. Посебан проблем потиче од субјективног карактера процеса задавања тестова - дражи се задају непосредно од стране испитивача, без објективне могућности за контролом уношења његових емоционалних стања у тај процес, што доводи у сумњу могућност понављања мерења под истоветним условима...Any progress towards reliable lie detection is more than welcome, bearing in mind that lying is a significant cognitive process, both developmentally and functionally, with potentially very important practical consequences, both on personal and on general social level. Given that the indicators of lying are indirect, conclusions regarding this phenomenon are most often reached by measuring emotional reactivity – the excited state of the body that occurs as a psychophysiological response to a conscious lie. Previous measurements of emotional reactivity during lying indicate that their reliability varies due to insufficient control of the experimental situation. The approach to measurement that has so far been used for research on this subject is not able to fully solve the problem of impact of high cognitive load in real situations of lying to the increased reactivity of respondents. In a real situation of lying, the respondent is mostly overwhelmed by stress, regardless of guilt; for the same reason, any stimulus in the test, be it associated with lying or not, leads to the respondent’s reaction to a certain extent. Another significant source of problems in conventional measurements of this type is the length of interstimulus interval of giving and measuring the stimulus (15-25 seconds). This time by far exceeds the cognitive processing time of presented stimuli and creates conditions for their additional spontaneous cognitive processing which is beyond the control of the examiner and which directly affects measurement results. A long interstimulus interval also provides real possibility for the use of countermeasures by the respondent. For these reasons, in some measurements it cannot be concluded with certainty what caused the measured reaction: whether it is the result of exposure of test stimulus and to what extent, or it is the consequence of distorting and processing the content of that stimulus in an uncontrolled manner. Such indiscriminate and uncontrolled reactivity of respondents not only complicates, hinders and prevents interpretation of reactions, but also leads to emphasizing the subjective factor in measuring reactivity during lying. A particular problem arises from the subjective nature of the process of administering tests - stimuli are given directly by the examiner, without objective opportunity to control introduction of the examiner’s emotional states into this process, which raises doubts about the possibility of repeated measurements under the same conditions..