Mutual intelligibility between West and South Slavic languages

In the present study we tested the level of mutual intelligibility between three West Slavic (Czech, Slovak and Polish) and three South Slavic languages (Croatian, Slovene and Bulgarian). Three different methods were used: a word translation task, a cloze test and a picture task. The results show that in most cases, a division between West and South Slavic languages does exist and that West Slavic languages are more intelligible among speakers of West Slavic languages than among those of South Slavic languages. We found an asymmetry in Croatian-Slovene intelligibility, whereby Slovene speakers can understand written and spoken Croatian better than vice versa. Finally, we compared the three methods and found that the word translation task and the cloze test give very similar results, while the results of the picture task are somewhat unreliable

Application of Laryngeal Mask for Securing Respiratory Pathways in Patient with Circumjaw Inflammation

The authors retrospectively studied the advantages, disadvantages, risk and complications in the application of laryngeal mask (LM) to secure respiratory pathways in patients with circummaxillary/circummandibular inflammation. The authors followed 23 patients at the age 19-68 years from the point of view of age of the patients, sex, size of contracture of masticatory muscles before and after diseases. LM was introduced without the application of laryngoscope and failures, i.e. repeated intubations, the use of laryngoscope, necessary endotracheal intubation, symptoms of stomach distension, regurgitation of stomach content, aspiration of stomach content and insufficient depth of anesthesia, were followed.The study demonstrated that LM may be usedd for a safe maintenance of respiratory pathways and makes it possible to sufficient depth of anesthesia in the therapy of circummaxillary/circummandibular inflammation of odontogenic origin. LM may be applied even in conditions associated with difficut opening of mouth and potential deformities of pharynx by in inflammatory edema

Hydrogen Adsorption on Ordered and Disordered Pt-Ni Alloys

The bulk properties and chemical reactivity of disordered Pt-Ni alloys in the A1 (fcc) structure are investigated using different methods: Virtual Crystal Approximation (VCA), Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker Coherent Potential Approximation (KKR-CPA), and large explicit supercells generated using Super-Cell Random Approximates (SCRAPs). While VCA predicts lattice constants that closely follow Vegard’s law, the large supercells and KKR-CPA predict lattice constants that are consistently larger than Vegard’s law. KKR-CPA results closely agree with those from the large supercells for the disordered alloys, producing similar projected density of states and magnetic moment across the composition range. For instance, while VCA predicts the disordered alloys to be non-magnetic at a Pt concentration (xPt) ≥ 0.5, KKR-CPA and SCRAPs predict the disordered alloys to remain ferromagnetic to higher Pt concentrations. As xPt decreases, the adsorption of H becomes more exothermic on bulk-terminated (111) surfaces but less exothermic on Pt monolayer-terminated (111) surfaces due largely to strain effects. (111) surfaces cut from the large supercells predict average H adsorption energies on the disordered alloys similar to those on the ordered phases of the same compositions, while VCA predicts H adsorption to be more exothermic