Prescribing antibiotics to preschool children in primary health care in Croatia

The use of antibiotics depends on cultural and socioeconomic factors, physician's characteristics as well as on microbiological considerations. Aim of our study was to asses antibiotic prescription among preschool children in primary health care in Croatia in relation to socioeconomic factors, symptoms and diagnoses, and type of health care provider. Retrospective longitudinal survey was conducted in 7 teaching primary health care offices in the Croatian capital of Zagreb during 2004, among 1700 preschool children. Antibiotics were prescribed to 611 (46%) children. Significantly more antibiotics were prescribed to boys (66.7%, P = 0.024) and to children whose parents had lower educational level. Most frequently antibiotics were prescribed for the symptoms such as fever (32%), cough (32.5%), nasal discharge (12%), and for the diagnoses such as respiratory diseases (J00-J99) (40%), infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-A99) (31%), and diseases of the middle ear and mastoid (H60-H95) (15%). Logistic regression analyses also predicted correlation of antibiotic prescriptions with socioeconomic factors, symptoms and diagnoses and health care of pediatrician. Prescription of antibiotics for preschool children in primary health care in Croatia related to socioeconomic factors, type of health care provider, certain symptoms and diagnosis groups which should be taken into account when assessing and planning primary health care for preschool children

A Federal Constituency for Belgium: Right Idea, Inadequate Method

The survival of the Belgian state is an important matter—and not just to Belgium. If, in the physical and administrative heart of Europe, groups that have lived together peacefully for nearly two centuries decide that they must part, what does that say about the prospects for more fragile, more recently constructed democracies? Partition and secession are generally bad answers to serious ethnic conflict, answers that usually have an array of negative consequences (Horowitz 2003). For this among other reasons, the proposal of the Pavia Group is to be commended. It aims to break the deadlock in Belgian politics and provide politicians with incentives to speak for the country as a whole, rather than merely for members of their own group. Furthermore, it does this by a method intended to affect politicians: attempting to change the mix of votes on which they rely for their election. This is a very good first step

The first 1000 cultured species of the human gastrointestinal microbiota

Peer reviewe

Supplementary Feeding of Grazing Dairy Cows

The objective of this paper was to consider the effect of supplementary feeding of grazing dairy cows on dry matter intake (DMI), milk production and milk composition. Accurate estimations of total DMI and pasture DMI are important to the management of dairy grazing systems. The intakes of dry matter (DM) and net energy-NEL are lower on the pasture-only diet compared with cows supplementary fed with concentrate. Many pasture factors affect DMI, including pregrazing pasture mass and pasture allowance. Milk production of high producing grazing dairy cows in early lactation increases linearly as the amount of concentrate increases to 10 kg DM/day with a milk response of 1 kg milk/kg concentrate. In late lactation, increases are with a lower milk response per kilogram of supplemented concentrate. With the amount of concentrate supplementation, milk fat and protein yield increase while milk fat percentage decreases. Supplementation with rumen undegradable protein (RUP) is important for meeting requirements of grazing dairy cows, because the pasture has high ruminal crude protein (CP) degradability. Corn silage supplementation to grazing cows may increase milk production if pasture offered is restricted, but if pasture is offered ad libitum milk production does not change or can decrease. Supplementation of ruminally inert fat could have positive effect on milk production with concentrate supplemented at a lower rate

The transition process: Stimulating free entrepreneurship

The text consists of two parts. In the first we expound the thesis that transition is actually a process of creation of institutional preconditions for development of private entrepreneurship at a given moment and under the inherited circumstances. To create an environment that stimulates free entrepreneurship and enables a successful transition requires a lot of knowledge, creativity and pragmatism (there is no general model). The rest remains on the entrepreneurs. In the second part we analyse the experience of FRY before and after the change of regime. During the former regime FRY was an example of degenerative connection between politics and economy geared to prevent reforms. The task of the new government is to make a radical break with the earlier practice. If the reform is not radical and not aiming to create an institutional environment that fully stimulates competition and private entrepreneurship (which has not been the case so far), it has no good prospects to succeed

Resistance to antimicrobials drugs and control measures of Salmonella spp in the poultry industry

The worldwide prevalence of multiple resistant Salmonella spp is described. Clonally distributed Salmonella Enteritidis PT4 and Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 are among the most pathogenic strains for humans. Recently there have been reports on the prevalence of ST “like” monophasic 4(5),12:i strains in some countries. Vaccination strategy and antimicorbial agent therapy is also briefly discussed. Products of animal origin must be safe and without the risk of antimicrobial resistance. Subsequently, the good management practice at farm level and HACCP in feed factories are required to cope with salmonella infections. Poultry producers in developed countries have been motivated to participate in salmonella control programs, because of public awareness on safe food and risks in the food chain. Export of poultry and poultry products is more successful in the regions where Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium have been eradicated. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR31071

Determination of invariant measures: An approach based on homotopy perturbations

This paper describes the application of the homotopy perturbations method (HPM) in the computation of invariant measures (IMs) of the non-linear dynamical systems which are characterized by the complex, chaotic behavior. The convergence of the HPM is formally investigated and confirmed, and its efficiency is illustrated in several examples of widely used chaotic maps

New approach to evaluate the TOWS matrix and its application in a mining company

SWOT analyses and the closely related TOWS matrix are frequent starting points for an organization to develop its strategy. The paper deals with the evaluation of the TOWS matrix and presents three novel approaches to evaluate the different factors of the TOWS matrix, namely (1) approach to evaluate the factors with identical weights; (2) approach to evaluate factors with their weights determined within the different quadrants of the TOWS matrix; and (3) approach to evaluate factors with weights determined within the whole TOWS matrix. The third approach has two variants. The proposed approaches to evaluate the TOWS matrix were tested on a SWOT analysis of a significant mining company in the Czech Republic. The results imply that the strategy W-T (weaknesses-threats) is recommended in three cases, while the strategy S-T (strengths-threats) is recommended once. The paper may be valuable for managers responsible for strategic planning.Web of Science118121303129

Characteristics of Traditional and Novel Food Consumers

begging of October 2010. The instrument used in this survey was a structured questionnaire consisting of several separate sections, including motivation toward food in general (Food Choice Questionnaire - FCQ), the specific questions about traditional and functional food and consumer socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The stratified three-staged random representative sample is applied (N=516). Based on reported frequency heavy traditional food consumers, who simultaneously reported lower level of functional food consumption (NT=196) and heavy functional food consumers with lower level of traditional food consumption (NF=60) are identified. A descriptive statistical analysis (parametric and non-parametric) is conducted with the aim to investigate all statistically significant differences between two consumers’ group profiles.The heavy traditional dominate over heavy functional food consumer group in Serbia. “Traditional food” in Serbia is perceived as home-made, tasty and healthy, with long heritage. Rank of motivations is very similar: after ‘taste’ - ‘price’, ‘natural content’ and ‘health’ are most frequently chosen by both consumers groups. However, the heavy traditional food consumers are more old, therefore unemployed (as retired people are considered as unemployed) and exposed to social influences. Differences in age and education between two compared consumers groups indicate possible transition of diet pattern toward more frequent functional food consumption