Multimodal Image Analysis of Chronic Leukemic Lymphoproliferative Disorders and the Hypothesis of »Single« and »Multiple« Programmed Stops in the Development of Typical and Atypical Forms of Leukemias and Lymphomas

The study consisted of morphometric analysis, assessment of the argyrophilic nucleolar organization region (AgNOR) characteristics, and image cytometry (ICM) in different tumor mass compartments: bone marrow (BM), peripheral blood (PB) and lymph nodes (LN) from patients with chronic leukemic lymphoproliferative disorders. A total of 71895 cells were analyzed on SFORM PC (VAMSTEC, Zagreb). Correlation between morphometric, AgNOR and ICM characteristics revealed the cells with low proliferative activity to possess small, homogeneous AgNOR, with the majority of cells in the peak of DNA histogram. The cells with high proliferative activity had inhomogeneous AgNOR, mostly containing greater DNA content than peak cells, pathologic mitoses (DNA>4N), or the majority of cells were in the S-phase of the cell cycle. Cells with medium proliferative activity and annular AgNOR were in-between. Analysis of different tumor mass compartments showed that lymphatic cells with the affinity to accumulate in BM regularly exhibited low proliferative activity (a lower percentage of cells in SFC and highest percentage of cells in the peak of the G0/G1 phase). The cells in LN exhibited the characteristics of proliferative cells (an increased number of AgNOR, larger and more proliferative inhomogeneous AgNOR, and lowest percentage of cells in the G0/G1 phase). The migration of cells from BM to LN and between lymph nodes occurred through PB (there were cells with low and high proliferative activity: a higher proportion of cells in SFC and at the same time in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle). Analysis of cell size and proliferative activity in different compartments of tumor mass revealed that the cells in BM and PB did not differ substantially according to size and proliferative activity, while an inverse pattern was observed between PB and LN. As small cells are inactive and larger cells more proliferative, the analysis quite unexpectedly showed the PB cells to be largest and most inactive, in contrast to LN where the cells were smallest and most active. The »single« and »multiple programmed stops« have been hypothesized in the development of typical forms of leukemias and lymphomas and atypical forms of subacute and subchronic leukemias. Differentiation impairment may occur at any stage, and different »stop« locations result in different morphology and affinity to accumulation in bone marrow, peripheral blood and lymph nodes

The New Political Macroeconomics in Modern Macroeconomics and Its Appliance to Transition Processes in Serbia

This study deals with important issues related to the new political macroeconomics and its appliance to the economic movements in Serbia, which is a country of “new democracy” as well as with transition economy. In political macroeconomics, it is a known fact that the economic policy instruments can be used for political purposes – simulated improvement of economic indicators to win the elections. These options assume specific features in transition economies, such as the Serbian economy. The political instability in Serbia, reflected in frequent elections, as well as in the diversity in political and economic goals of the key political parties leading to increasing political uncertainty in both the pre-election and post-election periods, weakened the economic system. Simultaneously, using the economic policy for political purposes to support the “pro-democratic” and “pro-European” parties proved to be paradoxically justified.Political macroeconomics, New democracy, Fiscal manipulation, Political instability

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Insights from Lymph Nodes & Bone Marrow and Clinical Perspectives

B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) is characterized by highly variable distribution of tumor mass between peripheral blood, bone marrow and lymphoid organs which is important for staging, classification and prognosis. These clinical findings with novel data about importance of B-cell receptor and its stimulation with the support of microenvironment indicate important role of tissues (lymphoid organs and bone marrow) in the pathogenesis of B-CLL. Here is presented the novel approach of simultaneous characterization of B-CLL cells form peripheral blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes by flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry, defining inter- and intraclonal diversity with respect to various molecules. These include adhesion molecules (integrins, immunoglobulins, selectins), chemokine receptors (including CXCR-4), signaling molecules and prognostic factors (CD38 and ZAP-70), proliferation and apoptosis markers (including Ki67, AgNORs with PK index, survivin, bcl-2) and therapeutic targets (CD20 and CD52) and residual hematopoietic stem cells. A number of interesting significant interactions have been discovered, pointing to the important role of neoplastic cell microenvironment. These may in addition to insights in pathogenesis and roles of different microenvironments add to diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of B-CLL patients

Bio-Inspired Nanomembranes as Building Blocks for Nanophotonics, Plasmonics and Metamaterials

Nanomembranes are the most widespread building block of life, as they encompass cell and organelle walls. Their synthetic counterparts can be described as freestanding or free-floating structures thinner than 100 nm, down to monatomic/monomolecular thickness and with giant lateral aspect ratios. The structural confinement to quasi-2D sheets causes a multitude of unexpected and often counterintuitive properties. This has resulted in synthetic nanomembranes transiting from a mere scientific curiosity to a position where novel applications are emerging at an ever-accelerating pace. Among wide fields where their use has proven itself most fruitful are nano-optics and nanophotonics. However, the authors are unaware of a review covering the nanomembrane use in these important fields. Here, we present an attempt to survey the state of the art of nanomembranes in nanophotonics, including photonic crystals, plasmonics, metasurfaces, and nanoantennas, with an accent on some advancements that appeared within the last few years. Unlimited by the Nature toolbox, we can utilize a practically infinite number of available materials and methods and reach numerous properties not met in biological membranes. Thus, nanomembranes in nano-optics can be described as real metastructures, exceeding the known materials and opening pathways to a wide variety of novel functionalities

Brochosome-Inspired Metal-Containing Particles as Biomimetic Building Blocks for Nanoplasmonics: Conceptual Generalizations

Recently, biological nanostructures became an important source of inspiration for plasmonics, with many described implementations and proposed applications. Among them are brochosome-inspired plasmonic microstructures—roughly spherical core-shell particles with submicrometer diameters and with indented surfaces. Our intention was to start from the nanoplasmonic point of view and to systematically classify possible alternative forms of brochosome-inspired metal-containing particles producible by the state-of-the-art nanofabrication. A wealth of novel structures arises from this systematization of bioinspired metal-containing nanocomposites. Besides various surface nanoapertures, we consider structures closely related to them in electromagnetic sense like surface nano-protrusions, shell reliefs obtained by nano-sculpting, and various combinations of these. This approach helped us build a new design toolbox for brochosome-inspired structures. Additionally, we used the finite elements method to simulate the optical properties of simple brochosome-inspired structures. We encountered a plethora of advantageous optical traits, including enhanced absorption, antireflective properties, and metamaterial behavior (effective refractive index close to zero or negative). We conclude that the presented approach offers a wealth of traits useful for practical applications. The described research represents our attempt to outline a possible roadmap for further development of bioinspired nanoplasmonic particles and to offer a source of ideas and directions for future research

Matematičko modeliranje i sinteza regulatora aktivnog diferencijala

U ovom radu je opisan model aktuatora diferencijala. Pošto je u postojećem modelu aktuatora nedostajao model elastičnosti kuglica-na-rampi mehanizma pokušalo se analitički dobiti ovisnost elastične deformacije o sili potrebnoj za uključivanje uljne spojke. Prikazan je kompletan analitički postupak te su rezultati uspoređeni sa eksperimentalno prikupljenim podatcima. Model aktuatora se sastoji od lineariziranog modela motora te modificiranog PID regulatora pozicije. Provedena je sinteza PID regulatora pozicije metodom optimuma dvostrukog odnosa te su dani parametri regulatora kao i nadomjesna vremenska konstanta regulacijskog kruga. Ispitani su parametri regulatora na skokovitu promjenu reference te su dani rezultati i komentar. Nadalje, implementiran je u model i ispitan utjecaj šuma te je provedeno ispitivanje ovisnosti različitih brojeva impulsa enkodera (u ovom radu 50 i 2000 impulsa po okretaju) o brzini odziva sustava te su prikazani rezultati simulacije i dana je usporedba rezultata utjecaja enkodera sa vše i manje impulsa

Large Deviations and Fluctuation Theorem for Selectively Decoupled Measures on Shift Spaces

We establish the Level-1 and Level-3 Large Deviation Principles (LDPs) for invariant measures on shift spaces over finite alphabets under very general decoupling conditions for which the thermodynamic formalism does not apply. Such decoupling conditions arise naturally in multifractal analysis, in Gibbs states with hard-core interactions, and in the statistics of repeated quantum measurement processes. We also prove the LDP for the entropy production of pairs of such measures and derive the related Fluctuation Relation. The proofs are based on Ruelle-Lanford functions, and the exposition is essentially self-contained

Teachers' perception of the application of gestures in TEFL classroom

In modern classrooms, the emphasis is still put on the four essential skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking). Therefore, an important part of the multimodality of language and communication is excluded, and learners may not reach their potential communicative competence. One of the excluded modes of communication are gestures, i.e. hand and body movement that accompany the speech and provide further information. It seems that gestures are rarely the selected focus in TEFL classrooms due to their subconscious and automatic nature, even though they are an important factor in the facilitation of communication. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to examine the teachers’ perception of the application of gestures in TEFL classroom. Therefore, a qualitative study involving Croatian teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) was conducted and its primary aim was to investigate the extent to which they report to use gestures in classrooms. Our expectation was that teachers would concede that they rarely focus on gestures but, after raising their awareness of the importance of gestures, teachers would become interested in them, and results showed that: a) teachers do not focus on the use of gestures, and b) they are willing to incorporate gestures in their classes. Furthermore, this thesis contains a section about The Distributed Little Red Hen Lab (Red Hen Lab), which is a global laboratory and consortium for research into multimodal communication and gestures