Trends in traffic deaths before and after the passing of the non-alcohol law in Croatia in 2004

The aim of the research was to gather data as the basis to formulate theory and researchbased recommendations to policy makers with the intention of decreasing the number of alcoholrelated accidents and victims on the Croatian roads. In order to achieve that, data about the injured traffic participants and the share of participants under the influence of alcohol in the Republic of Croatia, have been collected and analysed through a fouryear period, before and after the passing of the New Road Traffic Safety Act on 20 August 2004.Цель исследования заключалась в сборе данных для разработки теоретических научно обоснованных рекомендаций для директивных органов с целью уменьшения числа связанных с алкоголем аварий и жертв на дорогах Хорватии. Для этого были собраны данные о пострадавших от дорожно-транспортных проишествий (ДТП) в Республике Хорватия участников дорожного движения и доли участников, находящихся под воздействием алкоголя. Данные проанализированы за четыре года до и после принятия новых Правил дорожного движения дорожного движения от 20 августа 2004 года.Мета дослідження полягала в зборі даних для розробки теоретичних науко во обгрунтованих рекомендацій для ди рективних органів з метою зменшення числа пов’язаних з алкоголем аварій і жертв на дорогах Хорватії. Для цього були зібрані дані про постраждалих від дорож ньо транспортних пригод (ДТП) в Рес публіці Хорватія учасників дорожнього руху та частки учасників, що знаходяться під впливом алкоголю. Дані проаналізо вані за чотири роки до і після прийняття нових Правил дорожнього руху дорожнього руху від 20 серпня 2004 року

Global health governance, healthy systems and development cooperation

La salute globale è un’area emergente di studi, ricerca e pratiche interdisciplinari che considera gli effetti della globalizzazione sulla salute con particolare attenzione alle questioni inerenti ai suoi determinanti sociali e alle iniziative di carattere transnazionale, e alla loro interazione con i sistemi nazionali e locali. Il tema della cooperazione internazionale allo sviluppo fa parte integrante dell’agenda della governance globale “della” e “per” la salute, soprattutto a seguito dell'emergere nell'ultimo decennio di nuovi attori non governativi sovra-nazionali che vengono a modificare sostanzialmente gli equilibri di potere e i processi decisionali globali riguardo alla salute. In tale contesto, nel 2009 il Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Direzione Generale per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo, ha prodotto il documento Salute Globale: Principi Guida della Cooperazione Italiana inteso a “guidare i programmi sanitari della Cooperazione Italiana, a rafforzare la complementarità e la coerenza del sistema italiano di cooperazione, e a promuovere l’allineamento delle politiche di aiuto pubblico allo sviluppo alle politiche dei paesi partner, così come l’armonizzazione con quelle degli altri donatori, e in particolare dell’Unione Europea.” Declinando il tema sia secondo la questione “partenariati e sistemi per la cooperazione”, sia sul piano dell’interazione tra saperi e poteri globali e processi di sviluppo locali, questo Panel intende esplorare il ruolo delle università nell’approfondire e applicare nella pratica tali principi guida (lotta alla povertà e alle diseguaglianze, accesso universale ed equo ai servizi sanitari, rafforzamento dei sistemi sanitari nazionali, partecipazione delle comunità, partenariato internazionale nella ricerca scientifica e nella formazione, efficacia dell’aiuto). In questo contesto assume particolare rilevanza il rilancio dei principi contenuti nella Dichiarazione di Alma-Ata (1978). Tra quelli anche quello di garantire l’accesso ai farmaci essenziali a tutta la popolazione (cui oggi si aggiunge la necessità di far fronte al problema globale dei farmaci contraffatti). Le università italiane possono perseguire questo scopo attraverso attività di ricerca, con appropriati percorsi di formazione interdisciplinare e interculturale, e fornendo adeguato know-how e tecnologia appropriata, nonché sostenendo – interagendo con le istituzioni competenti e con la società civile - interventi mirati di informazione, prevenzione e controllo

Biotypes of Candida albicans isolated from clinical material of hospitalized patients

Metodom biotipizacije po Oddsu i Abbottu tipizirano je 910 izolata vrste Candida albicans iz uzoraka materijala različitih organskih sustava 360 hospitaliziranih bolesnika. Tipizacijom je dobiveno 79 biotipova, a 14 najučestalijih (355, 305, 345, 155, 357, 105, 315, 144, 157, 115, 057, 257, 300 i 244) činilo je 89,3 % svih biotipova ove vrste. Najučestaliji biotip bio je 355 i činio je 20,9 % svih biotipova vrste C. albicans iz svih uzoraka. Ovaj biotip bio je zastupljen s 36,2 % u izolatima iz kardiovaskularnog sustava, s 21,4 % u izolatima iz dišnog sustava, s 20,1 % u izolatima iz probavnog sustava, s 19,5 % u izolatima iz obrisaka kože, s 19,4 % u izolatima iz središnjeg živčanog sustava i sa 17,1 % u izolatima iz spolnomokraćnog sustava. Ova metoda biotipizacije pogodna je za epidemiološka istraživanja zastupljenosti biotipova vrste C. albicans, jer omogućava ispitivanje velikog broja izolata, a ne iziskuje velike materijalne troškove i skupu opremu.Using the Odds and Abbott method, 910 isolates of Candida albicans were typed. They were isolated from samples of different systems in 360 hospitalized patients. Typing revealed 79 biotypes where 14 (355, 305, 345, 155, 357, 105, 315, 144, 157, 115, 057, 257, 300 i 244) of them were the most common, accounted for 89.3 % of all biotypes. The most common biotype, 355, made up 20.9 % of all biotypes of this species isolated from all samples. It was present in 36.2 % of isolates from the cardiovascular system, 21.4 % of isolates from the respiratory system, 20.1 % of isolates from the gastrointestinal system, 19.5 % of isolates from the skin, 19.4 % of isolates from the central nervous system, and in 17.1 % of isolates from the urogenital system. This method is suitable for epidemiological research of the presence of C. albicans biotypes because it enables the testing of a large number of isolates with very low cost and reasonably simple equipment

Asymmetric Fluid Criticality I: Scaling with Pressure Mixing

The thermodynamic behavior of a fluid near a vapor-liquid and, hence, asymmetric critical point is discussed within a general ``complete'' scaling theory incorporating pressure mixing in the nonlinear scaling fields as well as corrections to scaling. This theory allows for a Yang-Yang anomaly in which \mu_{\sigma}^{\prime\prime}(T), the second temperature derivative of the chemical potential along the phase boundary, diverges like the specific heat when T\to T_{\scriptsize c}; it also generates a leading singular term, |t|^{2\beta}, in the coexistence curve diameter, where t\equiv (T-T_{\scriptsize c}) /T_{\scriptsize c}. The behavior of various special loci, such as the critical isochore, the critical isotherm, the k-inflection loci, on which \chi^{(k)}\equiv \chi(\rho,T)/\rho^{k} (with \chi = \rho^{2} k_{\scriptsize B}TK_{T}) and C_{V}^{(k)}\equiv C_{V}(\rho,T)/\rho^{k} are maximal at fixed T, is carefully elucidated. These results are useful for analyzing simulations and experiments, since particular, nonuniversal values of k specify loci that approach the critical density most rapidly and reflect the pressure-mixing coefficient. Concrete illustrations are presented for the hard-core square-well fluid and for the restricted primitive model electrolyte. For comparison, a discussion of the classical (or Landau) theory is presented briefly and various interesting loci are determined explicitly and illustrated quantitatively for a van der Waals fluid.Comment: 21 pages in two-column format including 8 figure

Conjectures on exact solution of three - dimensional (3D) simple orthorhombic Ising lattices

We report the conjectures on the three-dimensional (3D) Ising model on simple orthorhombic lattices, together with the details of calculations for a putative exact solution. Two conjectures, an additional rotation in the fourth curled-up dimension and the weight factors on the eigenvectors, are proposed to serve as a boundary condition to deal with the topologic problem of the 3D Ising model. The partition function of the 3D simple orthorhombic Ising model is evaluated by spinor analysis, by employing these conjectures. Based on the validity of the conjectures, the critical temperature of the simple orthorhombic Ising lattices could be determined by the relation of KK* = KK' + KK'' + K'K'' or sinh 2K sinh 2(K' + K'' + K'K''/K) = 1. For a simple cubic Ising lattice, the critical point is putatively determined to locate exactly at the golden ratio xc = exp(-2Kc) = (sq(5) - 1)/2, as derived from K* = 3K or sinh 2K sinh 6K = 1. If the conjectures would be true, the specific heat of the simple orthorhombic Ising system would show a logarithmic singularity at the critical point of the phase transition. The spontaneous magnetization and the spin correlation functions of the simple orthorhombic Ising ferromagnet are derived explicitly. The putative critical exponents derived explicitly for the simple orthorhombic Ising lattices are alpha = 0, beta = 3/8, gamma = 5/4, delta = 13/3, eta = 1/8 and nu = 2/3, showing the universality behavior and satisfying the scaling laws. The cooperative phenomena near the critical point are studied and the results obtained based on the conjectures are compared with those of the approximation methods and the experimental findings. The 3D to 2D crossover phenomenon differs with the 2D to 1D crossover phenomenon and there is a gradual crossover of the exponents from the 3D values to the 2D ones.Comment: 176 pages, 4 figure

Extent of Height Variability Explained by Known Height-Associated Genetic Variants in an Isolated Population of the Adriatic Coast of Croatia

BACKGROUND: Human height is a classical example of a polygenic quantitative trait. Recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 height-associated loci, though these variants explain only 2∼10% of overall variability of normal height. The objective of this study was to investigate the variance explained by these loci in a relatively isolated population of European descent with limited admixture and homogeneous genetic background from the Adriatic coast of Croatia. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a sample of 1304 individuals from the island population of Hvar, Croatia, we performed genome-wide SNP typing and assessed the variance explained by genetic scores constructed from different panels of height-associated SNPs extracted from five published studies. The combined information of the 180 SNPs reported by Lango Allen el al. explained 7.94% of phenotypic variation in our sample. Genetic scores based on 20~50 SNPs reported by the remaining individual GWA studies explained 3~5% of height variance. These percentages of variance explained were within ranges comparable to the original studies and heterogeneity tests did not detect significant differences in effect size estimates between our study and the original reports, if the estimates were obtained from populations of European descent. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have evaluated the portability of height-associated loci and the overall fitting of estimated effect sizes reported in large cohorts to an isolated population. We found proportions of explained height variability were comparable to multiple reference GWAS in cohorts of European descent. These results indicate similar genetic architecture and comparable effect sizes of height loci among populations of European descent

Exploring key-stakeholder perceptions on non-communicable disease care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya

Introduction: over one third of total Disability-Adjusted-Life-Years lost in Kenya are due to non-communicable diseases (NCD). In response, the Government declared significant commitment towards improving NCD care. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the burden on the already overstretched health systems in Kenya. The aims of this study are to assess whether health care providers perceived NCD care to be optimal during the pandemic and explore how to improve responses to future emergencies. Methods: this cross-sectional online survey included healthcare personnel with non-clinical roles (public health workers and policy-makers) and those delivering health care (doctors and nurses). Respondents were recruited between May and September 2021 by random sampling, completed by snowball sampling. Results: among 236 participants (42% in clinical, 58% in non-clinical roles) there was an overall consensus between respondents on NCD care being disrupted and compromised during the pandemic in Kenya. Detracted supplies, funding, and technical resources affected the continuity of NCDs’ response, despite government efforts. Respondents agreed that the enhanced personnel capacity and competencies to manage COVID-19 patients were positive, but noted a lack of guidance for redirecting care for chronic diseases, and advocated for digital innovation as a solution. Conclusion: this paper explores the perceptions of key stakeholders involved in the management of NCDs in Kenya to improve planning for future emergency responses. Gaps were identified in health system response and preparedness capacity during the pandemic including the perceived need to strengthen NCD services, with solutions offered to guide resilience efforts to protect the health system from disruption

Particles-vortex interactions and flow visualization in He4

Recent experiments have demonstrated a remarkable progress in implementing and use of the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and particle tracking techniques for the study of turbulence in He4. However, an interpretation of the experimental data in the superfluid phase requires understanding how the motion of tracer particles is affected by the two components, the viscous normal fluid and the inviscid superfluid. Of a particular importance is the problem of particle interactions with quantized vortex lines which may not only strongly affect the particle motion, but, under certain conditions, may even trap particles on quantized vortex cores. The article reviews recent theoretical, numerical, and experimental results in this rapidly developing area of research, putting critically together recent results, and solving apparent inconsistencies. Also discussed is a closely related technique of detection of quantized vortices negative ion bubbles in He4.Comment: To appear in the J Low Temperature Physic