Minerals of rocks

We live in technically oriented time with computers, internet and mobile phones all around us which leads to the fact that we have less and less time. Any information whether from science, technology, medicine, sport, politics, life etc. could be easily assessed at any time and at any place on the planet Earth. The same is with geology: volcanic eruptions, new minerals, ore exploitation, stock prices, etc. In spite of a numerous data concerning minerals, petrology, and geology is “disseminated” all over internet, the written word still have the key role in the education of youth. This was the reason for writing this publication, Minerals of rocks. It briefly presents and describes minerals, which take part in rock-forming processes, along with their physical and chemical properties, genesis and the most common associations. Photos included, are made by authors themselves or were "borrowed" from available websites. All of it was modified using graphic software and adjusted to the text to illustrate things better. Publication is meant for students of geology and mining, students of archeology, biology, geography, civil-engineering, architecture, ecology, etc. It will be of great value for studying minerals and rocks either when they take part in different geological, physico-chemical, biological and ecological processes, or when they are used for building, producing, living, for shelter and protection of mankind`s diverse items since the very first days of their existence. Publication requires at least a basic knowledge of mineralogy, as a number of data, such as symmetry of crystals, structural and optical properties and systematic of minerals, are shortly-given. Otherwise, this publication would be incomprehensible. A significant positive impact on the content, volume and a way of presentation had the questions and discussions of students during lectures and exercises from mineralogical, petrological and geological subjects along with directions that arose either during student`s seminar, final, and diploma works or master and doctor thesis. Neither less important were official and unendorsed discussions with our colleagues and scientists of other branches. No similar publication appeared or has been published prior to this. The author hope that it will be helpful for students, explorers, for adornments of minerals, rocks, geology and other earth sciences, i.e. for all whose study, exploration, job, and inspiration encompasses even a bit of rock-forming minerals. My deepest appreciation and thanks to Vidojko Jović, Ljiljana Karanović, Nebojša Vasić, Rade Jelenković and Nataša Gerzina whose valuable advice and help contributed to the quality and accuracy of this publication

Long-term treatment with olanzapine in hospital conditions: Prevalence and predictors of the metabolic syndrome

© 2015, Serbia Medical Society. All rights reserved. Introduction The risk of metabolic abnormalities is greatly increased in schizophrenic patients started on an atypical antipsychotic medication. Patients with psychiatric disorders exceed mortality ranges resulting from, among others, increased risk of cardiovascular events. Other factors contributing to the development of metabolic syndrome include prolonged duration of illness, increasing age, female sex and lifestyle factors. Objective This cross-sectional study was taken up to assess the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in schizophrenic patients receiving olanzapine monotherapy for at least six months and to determine the most important risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome presence in these patients. Methods A total of 93 long term hospitalized schizophrenic patients (71 men, 22 women), had a screening of the following: case-history data, psychiatric scales, anthropometric measures, blood (fasting glucose, lipid status, C-reactive protein – CRP) and urine samples (microalbuminuria). Results Prevalence of MetS according to International Diabetes Federation criteria in our study was 34.4%. The multivariate analysis distinguished the following significant predictors of MetS presence (in order of appearance): data about diabetes mellitus in family history (p=0.002), body mass index >25 kg/m2 (p=0.002), hyperlipidemia in family history (p=0.008), and elevated CRP value (p=0.042). Conclusion High rate of MetS in patients treated with olanzapine in this study exceeds MetS prevalence in general population. Among observed parameters, our study pointed to several “high risk” predictors associated with MetS presence. Regular monitoring of cardiometabolic risk factors is highly recommended. Positive heredity distress mentioned above may direct a psychiatrist to prescribe some other drug than olanzapine in the long term treatment of schizophrenia

Morphometric analysis of collagen and inflammatory cells in periodontal disease

© 2015, Institut za Vojnomedicinske Naucne Informacije/Documentaciju. All rights reserved. Background/Aim. Periodontal disease affects gingival tissue and supporting apparatus of the teeth leading to its decay. The aim of this study was to highlight and precisely determine his-tological changes in the gum tissue. Methods. Gingival biopsy samples from 53 healthy and parodontopathy-affected patients were used. Clinical staging of the disease was performed. Tissue specimens were fixed and routinely processed. Sections, 5 μm thin, were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, histochemical Van-Gieson for the collagen content, Spicer method for mast-cells and immunochemical method with anti-CD68 and anti-CD38 for the labelling of the macrophages and plasma-cells. Morphometric analysis was performed by a M42 test system. Results. While the disease advanced, collagen and fibroblast volume density decreased almost twice in the severe cases compared to the control ones, but a significant variation was observed within the investigated groups. The mast-cell number increased nearly two times, while the macrophage content was up to three times higher in severe parodontopathy than in healthy gingival tissue. However, the relative proportion of the-se cells stayed around 6% in all cases. Plasma-cells had the most prominent increase in the number (over 8 times) com-pared to the control, but again, a variation within investigated groups was very high. Conclusion. Gingival tissue destruction caused by inflammatory process leads to significant changes in collagen density and population of resident connective tissue cells. Although inflammatory cells dominated with the disease advancing, a high variation within the same investigated groups suggests fluctuation of the pathological process

Zuclopenthixol decanoate in pregnancy: Successful outcomes in two consecutive off springs of the same mother

Introduction. Almost all individual antipsychotics are classified into the intermediate pregnancy risk category as no or limited data exist about human pregnancy outcomes. We presented the case of zuclopenthixol decanoate using in two successive pregnancies of the same woman, which had not been published in the available peer-reviewed literature. Case report. A middle-age female subject who suffered from schizophrenia received zuclopenthixol decanoate injection during her two consecutive pregnancies. About four and a half months before diagnosis of the first pregnancy (~3.5 years after psychosis emergence), zuclopenthixol decanoate (400 mg every other week, im injection) was introduced to the treatment protocol (due to previous non-compliance with halo-peridol and risperidone). A significant clinical improvement was achieved and the dose during pregnancy was reduced to 200 mg once monthly and maintained to date. In both pregnancies the women gave birth to healthy girls who have been developing normally until now, at their ages of 6 months and of 3.5 years. During pregnancy and after giving birth to children the mothers' psychiatric status and her social functioning were significantly improved and are still stable. Close monitoring of the mother's health, a multidisciplinary approach to both her treatment and the monitoring of pregnancies as well as the complete compliance with the prescribed drug protocol were likely to be crucial for the therapeutic success. Conclusion. A favorable outcome of the present case suggests that the zuclopenthixol decanoate is a rational therapeutic option for pregnant women suffering from psychosis when the expected benefit exceed the potential risk, but a definitive evidence for its safety requires large, controlled studies

Overview of a new method for designing high efficiency small hydro power plants

Significant number of research projects in the area of renewable energy sources (especially for small hydro power plants) has been made within the Department for Energy and Process Engineering and Regional Euro Energy Efficiency Center at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (University of Kragujevac, Serbia) since early eighties. The results are various; numerous domestic and international recognition and technical performance tell about the success of the research. Research projects have been following the technical and technological development of research equipment and economy growth. This has led to the development of software for designing turbines of small hydro power plants. In order to notify the public about possibilities of our software, in this paper is briefly described a mathematical model and procedures for calculating and designing of small hydro power for known conditions. As an argument for assessing the validity and potentialof our research results is shown constructedsmall hydro power plant Bosnia 1, 2 x 100 kW power

Array Requirements for Scientific Applications and an Implementation for Microsoft SQL Server

This paper outlines certain scenarios from the fields of astrophysics and fluid dynamics simulations which require high performance data warehouses that support array data type. A common feature of all these use cases is that subsetting and preprocessing the data on the server side (as far as possible inside the database server process) is necessary to avoid the client-server overhead and to minimize IO utilization. Analyzing and summarizing the requirements of the various fields help software engineers to come up with a comprehensive design of an array extension to relational database systems that covers a wide range of scientific applications. We also present a working implementation of an array data type for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to support large-scale scientific applications. We introduce the design of the array type, results from a performance evaluation, and discuss the lessons learned from this implementation. The library can be downloaded from our website at http://voservices.net/sqlarray

DIJAGNOZA HLAMIDIJALNE INFEKCIJE

Chlamydial infection affects young, sexually active persons. As the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the world, Chlamydia can lead to severe consequences in reproductive system, including chronic pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and tubal factor infertility. On the other hand, although in large number of women the immune response is capable of removing the pathogen, infection can ascendently spread to the upper reproductive tract where can develop into persistent infection. Diagnostic procedures for detecting chlamydial infection include direct and indirect methods. Localized acute infections are detected by direct pathogen detection using cell culture, tests for qualitative detection of antigens, hybridization tests and nucleic acid amplification tests. When the infection has passed on the upper genital tract, especially in the case of a developed persistent infection, the diagnosis is usually made by indirect methods - the detection of antibodies to chlamydial antigens. Direct pathogen detection in patient material is necessary for the diagnosis of an acute chlamydial infection. Of all direct diagnostic tests, nucleic acid amplification tests are the only tests recommended by European and American Center for Disease Control and Prevention which can be used for the diagnosis of an acute chlamydial infection. These tests are recommended for their high sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic speed. Indirect serological tests which detect immune response or antibodies specific to chlamydial antigens are recommended for the detection of persistent chlamydial infection. Serum samples are relatively easy to collect, while tissue samples from the place of persistent infection are often hard to reach or unavailable.Publishe

Exercise Attenuates Anabolic Steroids-Induced Anxiety via Hippocampal NPY and MC4 Receptor in Rats

The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of chronic administration of nandrolone-decanoate (ND) or testosterone-enanthate (TE) in supraphysiological doses and a prolonged swimming protocol, alone and in combination with ND or TE, on anxiety-like behavior in rats. We investigated the immunohistochemical alterations of the hippocampal neuropeptide Y (NPY) and melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) neurons, as a possible underlying mechanism in a modulation of anxiety-like behavior in rats. Both applied anabolic androgenic steroids (AASs) induced anxiogenic effect accompanied with decreased serum and hippocampal NPY. The exercise-induced anxiolytic effect was associated with increased hippocampal NPY expression. ND and TE increased the number of MC4R, while the swimming protocol was followed by the reduction of MC4R in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. However, NPY/MC4R ratio in hippocampus was lowered by AASs and elevated by exercise in all hippocampal regions. An augmentation of this ratio strongly and positively correlated to increased time in open arms of elevated plus maze, in the context that indicates anxiolytic effect. Our findings support the conclusion that alterations in both hippocampal NPY and MC4R expression are involved in anxiety level changes in rats, while their quantitative relationship (NPY/MC4R ratio) is even more valuable in the estimation of anxiety regulation than individual alterations for both NPY and MC4R expression in the hippocampus

Changes in cardiac Na+/K+-ATPase expression and activity in female rats fed a high fat diet

This work is supported by the Grant Nos. 173033 and III41028 from the Ministry of Science, Republic of Serbia.The aim of this study was to investigate whether the presence of endogenous estradiol alters the effects of a high-fat (HF) diet on activity/expression of the cardiac Na+/K+-ATPase, via PI3K/IRS and RhoA/ROCK signalling cascades in female rats. For this study, female Wistar rats (8 weeks old, 150–200 g) were fed a standard diet or a HF diet (balanced diet for laboratory rats enriched with 42% fat) for 10 weeks. The results show that rats fed a HF diet exhibited a decrease in phosphorylation of the α1 subunit of Na+/K+-ATPase by 30% (p < 0.05), expression of total α1 subunit of Na+/K+-ATPase by 31% (p < 0.05), and association of IRS1 with p85 subunit of PI3K by 42% (p < 0.05), while the levels of cardiac RhoA and ROCK2 were significantly increased by 84% (p < 0.01) and 62% (p < 0.05), respectively. Our results suggest that a HF diet alters cardiac Na+/K+-ATPase expression via molecular mechanisms involving RhoA/ROCK and IRS-1/PI3K signalling in female rats.PostprintPeer reviewe

Genetic Aspects of Micronutrients Important for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are complex diseases whose etiology is associated with genetic and environmental risk factors, among which are diet and gut microbiota. To date, IBD is an incurable disease and the main goal of its treatment is to reduce symptoms, prevent complications, and improve nutritional status and the quality of life. Patients with IBD usually suffer from nutritional deficiency with imbalances of specific micronutrient levels that contribute to the further deterioration of the disease. Therefore, along with medications usually used for IBD treatment, therapeutic strategies also include the supplementation of micronutrients such as vitamin D, folic acid, iron, and zinc. Micronutrient supplementation tailored according to individual needs could help patients to maintain overall health, avoid the triggering of symptoms, and support remission. The identification of individuals’ genotypes associated with the absorption, transport and metabolism of micronutrients can modify future clinical practice in IBD and enable individualized treatment. This review discusses the personalized approach with respect to genetics related to micronutrients commonly used in inflammatory bowel disease treatment