Modern dramatic elements in three plays by Henrik Ibsen

Analyse av: Et dukkehjem, Vildanden, Når vi døde vågne

Gamma irradiation as a tool for modification of graphene oxide-silver nanowires composites

Graphene oxide (GO) was produced using the Hummers' method while silver nanowires (AgNWs) were obtained by polyol synthesis. Composite was produced by simple mixing of GO and AgNWs dispersions. The composite was produced in a form of free/standing films by vacuum filtration and exposed to gamma irradiation in an oxygen-free atmosphere. After irradiation, without any additional cleaning, the structure, morphology and electrical properties were investigated. Gamma irradiation was shown to be an efficient tool to induce a chemical reduction of GO, and it was able to improve the electrical conductivity of produced composites. Due to avoiding the usage of reagents and solvents, this method belongs to green chemical approaches

Possible role of TGF-B pathways in schizophrenia

© 2016, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Science. All Rights Reserved. The phenomenological uniqueness of each patient with schizophrenia is determined by complex symptomatology, particularly the overlapping of symptoms and their prominence in certain phases of this mental disorder. Establishing biological markers is an important step in the further objectivisation and quantification of schizophrenia. Identifying the cytokine profiles that precede a psychotic episode could direct the strategies for relapse prevention and be useful in predicting disease progression and treatment response. In the context of inflammation, TGF-β exerts potent anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive functions by inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokine synthesis, but it can also have pro-inflammatory functions through its stimulatory effects on inflammatory 17 cells. It has been shown that the T helper cell type-1 and type-17 responses are reduced and type-2 response is increased in patients with schizophrenia. Both data from the literature and our results also indicate the presence of an anti-inflammatory response through production of the TGF-β regulatory cytokine. A meta-analysis of plasma cytokine alterations suggested that TGF-β is the state marker for acute exacerbation of schizophrenia, and we showed that TGF-β can also be a valuable marker for psychosis. Hyperactivity of TGF-β signalling pathways in schizophrenia may be both a neuroprotective mechanism and a possible therapeutic target

Measuring the Potential for Technology Entrepreneurship Development: Serbian Case

Research Question: This paper explores the potential for technology entrepreneurship development at the country level through the creation of a new composite index. Motivation: Motivation for this paper arises from the fact there is a lack of the composite indices used exclusively for technology management as identified by Jovanovic et al. (2017). Technology indices are mostly used as important components of other composite indices used for tracking a country performance from the perspective of other global phenomena (e.g. competitiveness and innovativeness). The novelty of this paper reflects in the proposed Technology Entrepreneurship Development Potential (TED-pot) index which has multiple significances. It could serve as a help for policy makers in creating national policies; other companies and countries looking for the adequate environment to invest in technology entrepreneurship projects; academics who benefit from a new country-level view on technology entrepreneurship, especially ICT entrepreneurship. Idea: The idea of the paper was to create the TED-pot index to enable the cross-countries comparisons and examine whether the potential of Serbia lies in its entrepreneurial ICT sector. Data: Four indicators included in the created index are measured by the World Bank. The index is applied on six ex-Yugoslav countries and the EU for the period 2009-2014. All the data is collected from the World Bank database. Tools: The final index value is obtained by using the simple weighted function with equal weights. The overall TED-pot has been built upon the equal weighting of the two created pillars: ICT potential (ICT-pot) and Entrepreneurial potential (E-pot). The values for each pillar are calculated by the same procedure, through the simple mean of certain indicators. Findings: According to the calculated TED-pot values, Serbia stands out as a country with the greatest potential for technology entrepreneurship development in the region. Analysing individual pillars, ICT-pot indicates Serbia has very strong ICT sector, far ahead of other countries in the region, while the E-pot values show there is a space for administration to ease and speed up the process of starting new businesses in Serbia. This is a pilot research and the first presentation of the created index, which calls for further investigation. Contribution: This paper expands exiting research related to the country-level measurement in the field of technology management and entrepreneurship, especially focusing on ICT entrepreneurship development

Microwave synthesis of N-CQDs : effect of wavelength on degradation of organic pollution in water

Industries today realis high amounts of different hazards into the environment without any pre– treatment, which is why the remediation from organic pollution still represents one of the most important issues in waste water treatment. Organic dyes from textile industry are one of the extremely geno‒toxic and cyto‒toxic pollutants. Thus, finding the appropriate photocatalyst for the treatment of contaminated water under sunlight is still a challenging work from economical and green chemistry approach. Here we present a microwave assisted synthesis of nitrogen doped carbon quantum dots with high efficiency in degradation of Rose Bengal organic dye from water under visible, blue, green and red light irradiation in batch system. The effect of microwave irradiation power and time on size and photocatalytic activity of synthesized dots were also investigated

Differences in MRSA prevalence and resistance patterns in a tertiary center before and after joining an international program for surveillance of antimicrobial resistance

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) emerged as one of the most important causes of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections (BSIs), especially the multidrug resistant clones. The aim of the present study was to compare prevalence and resistance patterns of MRSA bacteremia in the major tertiary-care academic and referral center in Serbia before and after implementing an active antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance. Laboratory-based before-after study was conducted during a two-year period (January 2012 to December 2013) in Clinical Centre of Serbia. Isolation and identification of bacterial strains were done following standard microbiological procedures. During the AMR surveillance, nearly twice more bloodstream samples were collected compared to the year without surveillance (1,528 vs. 855). In total, 43 isolates of MRSA were identified. MRSA was significantly more prevalent during the AMR surveillance compared to the previous year [14 (66.7%) to 29 (76.3%); P = 0.046]. During the AMR surveillance, MRSA more frequently originated from medical departments compared to intensive care unit, surgical department, and internal medicine (P = 0.027) indicating increasing MRSA infections in patients with less severe clinical condition and no apparent risk factors. Higher prevalence of MRSA and its lower susceptibility to erythromycin were revealed by implementation of active AMR surveillance, which may reflect more thoughtful collection of bloodstream samples from patients with suspected BSI

Environmentally friendly approaches for chemical modification of carbon-based nanomaterials

Carbon-based nanomaterials are under investigation for different applications, which often demands their chemical modification such as introducing the amino-functional groups or removing carboxyl and hydroxyl groups. In this paper, we are presenting approaches for changing the structure of selected carbon-based nanomaterials in which the use of reactive toxic chemicals is avoided. The methods such as gamma irradiation, thermal treatment with a source of N atoms and nascent hydrogen reduction are studied as possible methods for modification of carbon-based nanomaterials. In the phase of the cleaning, again environmentally friendly approaches are used: filtration, centrifugation, and dialysis. Due to selected methods for both modification and cleaning, the presented approaches are environmentally friendly, they avoiding the use of both aggressive toxic chemical in the synthetic phases as well as organic solvents in the phase of cleaning. Thanks to the avoiding of dangers chemical, these methods can lead to the lowering of the waste chemicals producing in the long-term future

Risk factors associated with poor clinical outcome in pyogenic spinal infections : 5-years’ intensive care experience

Introduction: Management of pyogenic spinal infections (PSI) after the development of neurological deficit has not been specifically addressed in the literature. We aimed to describe real-life clinical outcomes of PSI in patients admitted to an intensive care unit with neurological deficit and identify factors associated with good prognosis. Methodology: Consecutive patients admitted to ICU with a possible diagnosis of spinal infection over five years’ period were included. Descriptive statistics were performed to examine the demographics and clinical parameters. Results: The majority (71%) of patients were male. The mean age was 57.4 years (27-79), and 71% were > 50 years old. At least one underlying risk factor was identified in 68% of the patients; the most common comorbidity was diabetes mellitus (DM). All patients have presented with fever accompanied by a neurological deficit (86%) and back pain (79%). A complete recovery was achieved in 25% of patients. However, the majority of patients had adverse outcomes with 21.4% mortality, and 43% remaining neurological sequelae. Increased age with a cut-off of 65 years and pre-existing DM were identified as being associated with poor outcome. Conclusion: Mortality among patients admitted to ICU with PSI was significantly higher than reported in the literature. The residual neurological deficit was common, one-third of patients had remaining neurological sequelae, and only one-fourth had complete recovery. Increased age and background DM were the most important determinants of poor clinical outcome. The impact of DM appears to be much more important than currently recognised in this population.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Domain/Mapping Model: A Novel Data Warehouse Data Mode

In order for a data warehouse to be able to adequately fulfill its integrative and historical purpose, its data model must enable the appropriate and consistent representation of the different states of a system. In effect, a DW data model, representing the physical structure of the DW, must be general enough, to be able to consume data from heterogeneous data sources and reconcile the semantic differences of the data source models, and, at the same time, be resilient to the constant changes in the structure of the data sources. One of the main problems related to DW development is the absence of a standardized DW data model. In this paper a comparative analysis of the four most prominent DW data models (namely the relational/normalized model, data vault model, anchor model and dimensional model) will be given. On the basis of the results of [1]a, the new DW data model (the Domain/Mapping model- DMM) which would more adequately fulfill the posed requirements is presented

THE ROLE OF CANDIDA ALBICANS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF STOMATITIS IN PATIENTS WEARING DENTURES

Denture stomatitis is the most common inflammatory reaction that occurs in people who wear dentures. It is believed that in 60-65% of cases the cause of this inflammation is infections by yeasts from the genus Candida (C.), primarily Candida albicans infection. C.albicans is a part of the normal microflora of the respiratory and digestive tract. This yeast has the ability to adhere to the oral mucosa and to the base of the denture, as well as to form a biofilm. Its virulence is especially supported by the state of weakened resistance of the organism, when C.albicans expresses its pathological effect. This paper presents the pathogenesis of C. albicans-associated denture stomatitis, as well as the most common diagnostic and therapeutic procedures used to diagnose and successful therapy