Validation of the oral health impact profile - 14 in patients with head and neck cancer

The Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) was designed to assess patients? perception of the impact of oral disorders on their quality of life (QoL). Although the OHIP-14 is now frequently used in patients with head and neck cancer, data related to its measurement properties in this population are scarce. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the OHIP-14 in a sample of Serbian patients with head and neck cancer. Data were available for 345 patients (257 [74.5%] males; aged 30-92 years), with head and neck cancer. All patients completed the OHIP-14 and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35. Factor analyses, internal consistency reliability (i.e., Cronbach?s ? coefficient), and construct validity were analyzed. The factor analyses confirmed that 14 OHIP items were measuring a single underlying factor. Cronbach?s ? coefficient was 0.98 and corrected item-total correlations ranged 0.77-0.93. Lower OHIP-14 scores (i.e., lower impacts on oral health) were more frequently present among patients who had only surgery as a therapeutic procedure compared to those who had surgery accompanied with radio- and chemotherapy (p< 0.01). Patients with a tumor stage 0-II also had lower OHIP-14 scores compared to those who had a tumor stage III-IV (p< 0.01). The OHIP-14 correlated significantly with the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35 scales. As a unidimensional instrument, the OHIP-14 provides oral QoL assessments with sound internal consistency reliability and construct validity among patients with head and neck cancer

Predictors of health-related quality of life in Serbian patients with head and neck cancer

The aim of this study was to identify predictors of the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in patients with head and neck cancers (HNCs). In total, 345 patients with HNCs were interviewed. A self-report questionnaire was administered to collect data about demographic characteristics, health status, smoking, alcohol consumption habits, and HRQoL. It were used the EORTC Instruments - Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30-questions (QLQ-C30), Quality of Life Questionnaire - Head and Neck Module 35-questions (QLQ-H&N 35) and OHIP-14 instrument for HRQoL assessments. Clinical information and treatment data were collected from medical records. Five groups of HRQoL predictors were identified: demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, psychophysical, and clinical/treatment. These HRQoL predictors had a strong (i.e., age, level of social support and social contact, level of education, depression, fatigue, presence of gastrostomy, comorbidities, and use of pain medications and supplements), a moderate (i.e., marital status, smoking, sexuality problems, time since diagnosis, presence of tracheostomy, and side effects outcomes of radio and chemotherapy) and a small impact (i.e., employment/financial difficulties, tumor site and stage, and surgical procedure). Study identified nineteen predictors that had significant, moderate and small impact on the HRQoL of patients with HNCs. Some of the predictors, like levels of social support and social contact, depression, and comorbidities could be targets for innervations to improve HRQoL

First detection of Zika virus infection in a Croatian traveler returning from Brazil, 2016

In the last few years, several imported cases of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection were reported in European countries. We report the first imported ZIKV infection case in a Croatian traveler returning from Brazil. The patient presented with a low-grade fever, pruritic rash, general weakness, myalgia, arthralgia and edema of the legs and recovered completely within a week. ZIKV infection was confirmed by detection of IgM/IgG antibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and confirmed by plaque-reduction neutralization test (PRNT). ZIKV IgM antibodies cross-reacted with dengue virus (DENV), West Nile virus (WNV) and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in ELISA. In indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), IgM cross-reactivity was found only with DENV-3. ZIKV IgG antibodies cross-reacted with DENV in both ELISA and IFA. PRNT for DENV was negative. Control serology performed on days 64 and 98 after disease onset showed a decline in cross-reactive heterologous DENV IgG antibodies compared to persistently high titer of homologous ZIKV IgG antibodies

Disulfiram moderately restores impaired hepatic redox status of rats subchronically exposed to cadmium

Examination of cadmium (Cd) toxicity and disulfiram (DSF) effect on liver was focused on oxidative stress (OS), bioelements status, morphological and functional changes. Male Wistar rats were intraperitoneally treated with 1mg CdCl2/kg BW/day; orally with 178.5 mg DSF/kg BW/day for 1, 3, 10 and 21 days; and co-exposed from 22nd to 42nd day. The co-exposure nearly restored previously suppressed total superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and increased glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities; increased previously reduced glutathione reductase (GR) and total glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activities; reduced previously increased superoxide anion radical (O-2(center dot-)) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels; increased zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe), and decreased copper (Cu) (yet above control value), while magnesium (Mg) was not affected; and decreased serum alanine aminotransferases (ALT) levels. Histopathological examination showed signs of inflammation process as previously demonstrated by exposure to Cd. Overall, we ascertained partial liver redox status improvement, compared with the formerly Cd-induced impact

Novel Delay-Dependent Stability Criteria for Discrete-Time Neural Networks with Time-Varying Delay

The delay-dependent stability problem is investigated for discrete-time neural networks with time-varying delays. A new augmented Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) with single and double summation terms and several augmented vectors is proposed by decomposing the time-delay interval into two nonequidistant subintervals to derive less conservative stability conditions. Then, by using Wirtinger-based inequality, reciprocally, and extended reciprocally convex combination lemmas, tight estimations for sum terms in the forward difference of the LKF are given. Several zero equalities are introduced to further relax the existing results. Less conservative stability criteria are proposed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, numerical examples are proposed to show the effectiveness and less conservativeness of the proposed method

Upgrade Evaluation of Traffic Signal Assets: High-resolution Performance Measurement Framework

Agencies that have large-scale traffic signal systems under their purview often have to face asset upgrade decisions. As one of the most advanced traffic control technologies, Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS) are among the options that must be taken into consideration. Having in mind the complexity of benefits and costs stemming from ATCS investments, there is a need for information-rich performance measures (PM) used in the evaluation and decision-making. However, individual PMs are often not suitable for evaluating the multidimensionality of ATCS operations, due the inherent variability of ATCS control parameters. To expand the range of PMs used in ATCS evaluation, this research develops a new PM, i.e., average arrivals on green ratio, and proposes a refinement of average delay PM to account for queue formation. The paper also presents an application framework for a multi-criteria analysis, assuming a combination of the proposed and existing PMs. In addition to presenting the analytical PM formulation, the evaluation methodology uses microsimulation for a case study comparison between actuated-coordinated and ATCS operations. The results include a comparison between previous and proposed PMs, based on the processed simulation data as well as field data. In conclusion, the proposed PMs have a high transferability potential, low data collection cost, and high data quality, thus being suitable for use in decision processes for signal asset investment. Finally, this research opens up further opportunities for advancing decision-support methods for traffic operations asset management.Peer reviewe

Redesigning current instruments as a precondition for a more effective environmental protection

The problems of environment and evaluation of natural capital belong to the phenomenology of externalities, and the requirements of environmental economics are ever more oriented towards the elaboration of the ecological-economic category of the externalization of internal expenses, wherefrom reasons for the introduction of ecological-economic instruments, before all payments for pollutions, ensue. Demystification of the negative conviction relating ecological payments as taxes is very important, since it must be shown that ecological payments correct, mitigate or remove externalities. Environmental protection is a complex system and it consists in a set of rules, measures and instruments that are applied for the surveillance of pollution sources, and shaping of instruments for environmental protection is a complex process intended for the accomplishment of established ecological goals. Among all instruments available for bridging the gap of internalization and exerting a significant effect on polluters to diminish their emissions of pollution, the ecological and economic ones are most important. The results of our investigation have demonstrated that it is necessary to reshape the current set of instruments regarding protection of vital functions of nature and an efficient environmental protection, and one of the key cognitions is that the scientific and professional public must not be excluded from the appraisals of creating and redesigning the instruments of environmental protection. These assertions have their foundation in the premise that the significance of elements of the social dimension in sustainable development is to a great extent determined by the level of environmental degradation and reduction in capacity of renewable sources. The paper, approach and data processing of the conducted research offer a new model and new elements of methodology for establishing the state and quality of the environment, whereby social-economic criteria of research (a socio-economic laboratory) are introduced into the fundamental analysis of the condition of crucial media of the environment, but also into shaping a more efficacious instrument set of protection. In such a way, a substantial contribution is given to the affirmation of a holistic and inter-disciplinary approach in the investigation and understanding the phenomenon of contemporary environmental reality, especially the central media of the environment (water, air, soil)

CFD simulations of thermal comfort in naturally ventilated primary school classrooms

The purpose of thermal comfort is to speck the combinations of indoor space environment and personal factors that will produce thermal environment conditions acceptable to 80% or more of the occupants within a space. Naturally ventilated indoors has a very complex air movement, which depends on numerous variables such as: outdoor interaction, intensity of infiltration, the number of openings, the thermal inertia of walls, occupant behaviors, etc. The most important mechanism for naturally ventilated indoors is the intensity of infiltration and thermal buoyancy mechanism. In this study the objective was to determine indicators of thermal comfort for children, by the CFD model based on experimental measurements with modification on turbulent and radiant heat transfer mathematical model. The case study was selected on school children of 8 and 9 years in France Presern primary school in Belgrade. The purpose was to evaluate the relationships between the indoor environment and the subjective responses. Also there was analysis of infiltration and stack effect based on meteorological data on site. The main parameters that were investigated are: operative temperature, radiant temperature, concentration of CO2, and air velocity. The new correction of turbulence and radiative heat transfer models has been validated by comparison with experimental data using additional statistical indicators. It was found that both turbulence model correct and the new radiative model of nontransparent media have a significant influence on CFD data set accuracy

Contribution to accident prediction models development for rural two-lane roads in Serbia

Over the last three decades numerous research efforts have been conducted worldwide to determine the relationship between traffic accidents and traffic and road characteristics. So far, the mentioned studies have not been carried out in Serbia and in the region. This paper represents one of the first attempts to develop accident prediction models in Serbia. The paper provides a comprehensive literature review, describes procedures for collection and analysis of the traffic accident data, as well as the methodology used to develop the accident prediction models. The paper presents models obtained by both univariate and multivariate regression analyses. The obtained results are compared to the results of other studies and comparisons are discussed. Finally, the paper presents conclusions and important points for future research. The results of this research can find theoretical as well as practical application.Peer reviewe

Colletotrichum orbiculare on watermelon: Identification and in vitro inhibition by antagonistic fungi

Anthracnose caused by the fungus Colletotrichum orbiculare is one of the most significant diseases of Cucurbitaceae. In Serbia watermelon fruits with typical anthracnose lesions were collected during the year of 2015. Affected fruits showed sunken, dark brown to black lesions with orange conidial masses produced in black acervuli. In an attempt to identify the causal organism, small pieces of necrotic tissue were surface sterilized and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Macroscopic and microscopic morphologicaly characteristics of three isolates were observed after growth on PDA for 7 days at 25 ºC under a 12 h light/dark cycle. Fungal colonies developed white, grey to black dense aerial mycelium. Conidia were hyaline, aseptate, straight and cylindrical to clavate, 9–12.5 μm × 4–5.5 μm. Fungal isolates were also characterized by sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA region using ITS1F/ITS4 primers and β-tubuline 2 gene using T1/Bt2b primers. The nucleotide sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS Acc. No. KT454386, KT454387 and KT454388; β-tubuline 2 gene Acc. No. KT581236, KT581237 and KT581238). BLAST analysis of ITS and β-tubuline 2 gene sequences showed that our isolates were 100% identical to other C. orbiculare in NCBI GenBank. Pathogenicity test was conducted on symptomless, detached watermelon fruits. All tested isolates caused anthracnose lesions on watermelon fruits after 10 days of incubation. Trichoderma harzianum (DSM 63059) and Gliocladium roseum (DSM 62726) were evaluated in vitro for their antagonistic potential against C. orbiculare. The results of this study identify T. harzianum and G. roseum as promising biological control agents (BCAs) for further testing against anthracnose disease on watermelon fruits