Two emperors and a queen

The film Two Emperors and a Queen has been produced as central element of my practice-as-research PhD project ‘The River Danube as a Holocaust Landscape: Journey of the Kladovo Transport’. The film (re)traces the journey of a group of Jewish refugees from central Europe – through the camera lens. Their entire journey was marked by striking relations to time, starting from its overall duration of more than two years (from 1939 to 1941-42) dominated by stasis rather than movement. The group derived its name from the Serbian town of Kladovo where their trip came to a prolonged halt. The article discusses the process of making this work in the context of practice-as-research. It is equally an online platform where it is possible to see the film

Effects of Different Gas Compositions on the Color Estimations of MAP Packaged Pork Chops

AbstractThis study was conducted to observe effects of different gas compositions on color of pork chops packaged in modified atmospheres. Gaseous compositions used were: MAP1 (75% O2:25% CO2); MAP2 (70% O2:30%CO2) and MAP3 (80% O2:20% CO2). Sensory evaluations of meat color and chemical properties (acid number, peroxide value, aw, pH, TVB-N and TBARs), were carried on the 1st, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th day of storage. The sensory evaluations of chop color in different MAP compositions are analyzed in relation to storage period, measured chemical properties and instrumental determination of meat color using linear and multivariate linear regression analysis

challenges faced by inclusive education in primary school

The paper examines the opinions and views of primary school teachers about inclusive education and the challenges it faces in the school. The paper examines teachers’ opinions and views (conducted research in august 2022) from primary school Jovan Mikic in Subotica Republic of Serbia and the opinions of the teachers from primary school Dimitar Vlahov in Shtip, Republic of North Macedonia. In addition to the teachers' opinions, the paper also includes the opinions and views of professionals: pedagogues, psychologists in the mentioned schools. The inclusion of children with special needs in regular groups in primary schools requires the fulfillment of appropriate conditions so that we could talk about inclusion in the true sense of the word. It is necessary to provide adequate material and technical resources, it is necessary to have qualified staff for the work in an inclusive classroom. The paper aims to see the challenges that inclusive education faces in these institutions and to see the positive practices that can be transferred

Radio Galaxy Zoo: compact and extended radio source classification with deep learning

Machine learning techniques have been increasingly useful in astronomical applications overthe last few years, for example in the morphological classification of galaxies. Convolutionalneural networks have proven to be highly effective in classifying objects in image data. Inthe context of radio-interferometric imaging in astronomy, we looked for ways to identifymultiple components of individual sources. To this effect, we design a convolutional neuralnetwork to differentiate between different morphology classes using sources from the RadioGalaxy Zoo (RGZ) citizen science project. In this first step, we focus on exploring the factorsthat affect the performance of such neural networks, such as the amount of training data, number and nature of layers, and the hyperparameters. We begin with a simple experiment inwhich we only differentiate between two extreme morphologies, using compact and multiplecomponentextended sources. We found that a three-convolutional layer architecture yieldedvery good results, achieving a classification accuracy of 97.4 per cent on a test data set. The same architecture was then tested on a four-class problem where we let the networkclassify sources into compact and three classes of extended sources, achieving a test accuracyof 93.5 per cent. The best-performing convolutional neural network set-up has been verifiedagainst RGZ Data Release 1 where a final test accuracy of 94.8 per cent was obtained, usingboth original and augmented images. The use of sigma clipping does not offer a significantbenefit overall, except in cases with a small number of training images.JKB acknowledges financial support from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), through project number CE110001020

Micro Rna-21 Expression Levels in Invasive Breast Carcinoma with a Non-Invasive Component

Invasive ductal carcinomas with a non-invasive component (IDC-DCIS) are classified as a group of invasive breast carcinomas, together with pure invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast (IDC). MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) has been characterized as a factor of breast cancer invasiveness, however the difference in miR-21 expression levels between IDC-DCIS and pure IDC tumors and the correlations with standard diagnostic and prognostic parameters inside the IDC-DCIS group are unknown. Our aim was to determine if miR-21 had the ability to distinguish these two invasive breast cancer groups. Levels of miR-21 expression were measured by a stem-loop quantitative Real-Time PCR (RT-qPCR) method. Expression levels of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her-2) and proliferative index Ki-67 were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. IDC-DCIS tumors had significantly lower levels of miR-21 expression in grade 2 (P=0.003, Mann-Whitney U test), ER positive (P=0.025, Mann-Whitney U test) and PR positive tumors (P=0.024, Mann-Whitney U test) than pure IDCs. miR-21 levels showed a different pattern of expression in IDC-DCIS compared to IDC tumors, which is based on the difference in miR-21 expression between Her-2 negative and Her-2 positive IDC-DCIS tumors (P=0.030, Mann-Whitney U test) and high negative correlation of miR-21 levels with PR levels (rho=-0.886, P=0.006, Spearman correlation). According to our results, IDC-DCIS breast carcinomas act in a different manner in pure IDC tumors with regard to the relations between miR-21 expression levels and the standard diagnostic and prognostic parameters, such as Her-2 status, ER and PR status and protein levels

Delivery of a Chlamydial Adhesin N-PmpC Subunit Vaccine to the Ocular Mucosa Using Particulate Carriers

Trachoma, caused by the intracellular bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), remains the world's leading preventable infectious cause of blindness. Recent attempts to develop effective vaccines rely on modified chlamydial antigen delivery platforms. As the mechanisms engaged in the pathology of the disease are not fully understood, designing a subunit vaccine specific to chlamydial antigens could improve safety for human use. We propose the delivery of chlamydia-specific antigens to the ocular mucosa using particulate carriers, bacterial ghosts (BGs). We therefore characterized humoral and cellular immune responses after conjunctival and subcutaneous immunization with a N-terminal portion (amino acid 1-893) of the chlamydial polymorphic membrane protein C (PmpC) of Ct serovar B, expressed in probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 bacterial ghosts (EcN BGs) in BALB/cmice. Three immunizations were performed at two-week intervals, and the immune responses were evaluated two weeks after the final immunization in mice. In a guinea pig model of ocular infection animals were immunized in the same manner as the mice, and protection against challenge was assessed two weeks after the last immunization. N-PmpC was successfully expressed within BGs and delivery to the ocularmucosa was well tolerated without signs of inflammation. N-PmpC- specific mucosal IgA levels in tears yielded significantly increased levels in the group immunized via the conjunctiva compared with the subcutaneously immunized mice. Immunization with N-PmpC EcN BGs via both immunization routes prompted the establishment of an N-PmpC-specific IFN gamma immune response. Immunization via the conjunctiva resulted in a decrease in intensity of the transitional inflammatory reaction in conjunctiva of challenged guinea pigs compared with subcutaneously and non-immunized animals. The delivery of the chlamydial subunit vaccine to the ocular mucosa using a particulate carrier, such as BGs, induced both humoral and cellular immune responses. Further investigations are needed to improve the immunization scheme and dosage

Mutations in DCC cause isolated agenesis of the corpus callosum with incomplete penetrance

Brain malformations involving the corpus callosum are common in children with developmental disabilities. We identified DCC mutations in four families and five sporadic individuals with isolated agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) without intellectual disability. DCC mutations result in variable dominant phenotypes with decreased penetrance, including mirror movements and ACC associated with a favorable developmental prognosis. Possible phenotypic modifiers include the type and location of mutation and the sex of the individual