Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis): Cost of Treatment in Serbia and the Implications

BACKGROUND: Although the costs of treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in developed countries are well established, they remain largely unknown in countries with recent histories of socio-economic transition including Serbia. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the costs of treatment including the resources used by patients with IBD in Serbia from a societal perspective. This includes both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. METHODS: This cost-of-illness study was conducted to identify direct, indirect and out-of-pocket costs of treating patients with IBD in Serbia. Patients with IBD (n = 112) completed a semi-structured questionnaire with data concerning their utilisation of heath-care resources and illness-related expenditures. All costs were calculated in Republic of Serbia dinars (RSD) at a 1-year level (2014) and subsequently converted to Euros. Median values and ranges were reported to avoid potential distortions associated with mean costs. RESULTS: Median total direct costs and total indirect costs per patient per year in patients with Crohn's disease were 192,614.32RSD (€1602.97) and 28,014.00RSD (€233.13) and 142,267.15RSD (€1183.97) and 21,436.00RSD (€178.39), respectively, in patients with ulcerative colitis. In both groups, the greatest component of direct costs was hospitalisation. CONCLUSIONS: Costs of IBD in Serbia are lower than in more developed countries for two reasons. These include the fact that expensive biological therapy is currently under-utilised in Serbia and prices of health services are largely controlled by the State at a low level. The under-utilisation of biologicals may change with the advent of biosimilars at increasingly lower prices

The correlation of Western and Eastern elements in Serbian church choral music of the first half of the 20th century

During the relatively short time between the two World Wars, Serbian society in the sphere of politics, economic and social aspects underwent a fast and fundamental transformation from a patriarchal structure towards a modern urban profile. Open both to East and West, the state invested a great deal in the international education of the younger generations and immediately the progressive new intellectual elite with great enthusiasm began to invest back in the general evolution of the country. Through the spirit of this time, one crucial, almost mythological question was raised again: “Are we (Serbs) going to be East in the West, or West in the East or, if we want to have our own place in Europe and the world, we should seek for a third way, our own synthesis with roots planted somewhere down in this crossroads of the two worlds?“ The main musical question of the second and third decades of the 20th century, as regards the aspects of a national style, was based on domestic or international grounds: first of all, this meant artistic stylization and performance of folk songs, or creative impulses towards “imaginative folklore“ without direct quotations, and, secondly, composing according to the models of Western art music. Influential artists claimed that only the individual transformed artistic reality of one period could bring discoveries without pure repetition. In the terms of relations to European artistic movements, Serbian culture finally moved from the position of follower to that of active participant

Explosive Remnants of War Contamination Response in Libya

Abu Grain is a town located 106 km (66 mi) east of Misrata and 138 km (86 mi) west of Sirte with an estimated population of 2,000 inhabitants. The town is known for its strategic road intersection connecting the Mediterranean cities of Misrata and Sirte with the desert district of Jufra. Between February and March 2016, Abu Grain’s population fled as Islamic State (IS) group forces advanced into town in an attempt to expand control toward the west of its stronghold in Sirte. According to the Libyan Red Crescent, Abu Grain’s inhabitants mostly fled to Bani Walid, Misrata, and Tripoli

Review of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in the eastern part of Europe, 2016

Introduction: This paper reviews the current knowledge and understanding of Cryptosporidium spp. an d Giardia spp. in humans, animals and the environment in 10 countries in the eastern part of Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Methods: Published scientific papers and conference proceedings from the international and local literature, official national health service reports, national databases and doctoral theses in local languages were reviewed to provide an extensive overview on the epidemiology, diagnostics and research on these pathogens, as well as analyse knowledge gaps and areas for further research. Results: Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. were found to be common in eastern Europe, but the results from different countries are difficult to compare because of variations in reporting practices and detection methodologies used. Conclusion: Upgrading and making the diagnosis/detection procedures more uniform is recommended throughout the region. Public health authorities should actively work towards increasing reporting and standardising reporting practices as these prerequisites for the reported data to be valid and therefore necessary for appropriate control plans.Peer reviewe

Extensive translation of small Open Reading Frames revealed by Poly-Ribo-Seq

Thousands of small Open Reading Frames (smORFs) with the potential to encode small peptides of fewer than 100 amino acids exist in our genomes. However, the number of smORFs actually translated, and their molecular and functional roles are still unclear. In this study, we present a genome-wide assessment of smORF translation by ribosomal profiling of polysomal fractions in Drosophila. We detect two types of smORFs bound by multiple ribosomes and thus undergoing productive translation. The 'longer' smORFs of around 80 amino acids resemble canonical proteins in translational metrics and conservation, and display a propensity to contain transmembrane motifs. The 'dwarf' smORFs are in general shorter (around 20 amino-acid long), are mostly found in 5'-UTRs and non-coding RNAs, are less well conserved, and have no bioinformatic indicators of peptide function. Our findings indicate that thousands of smORFs are translated in metazoan genomes, reinforcing the idea that smORFs are an abundant and fundamental genome component

How Community-Based Organizations Can Learn about the Needs and Strengths of Disconnected Young People: Hudson Guild of New York City's Youth Survey Effort

In Fall 2007, Hudson Guild -- a settlement house that provides services to hundreds of adults, teens and children in two housing developments in New York City -- embarked on a study to assess the needs of youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who were residing in the community and were disconnected (i.e., those youth who were not in school or not working) or at risk of becoming disconnected. The goal of the effort was twofold: to locate and engage these young people in the community who were not being served and to gather information that would help Hudson Guild create programs that would best meet their needs.This brief, commissioned by JobsFirst NYC, describes the process Hudson Guild employed and includes an appendix that provides the survey in its entirety and a companion decision-making tool that can be utilized by other organizations interested in undertaking a similar effort

The impact of the Željezara landfill on the environment

Montenegro faces significant problems in the management of all types of waste, a particular problem in the environment, in several locations are represented by PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls), extremely toxic chlorinated industrial chemicals, classified as POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) substances. Due to the aforementioned properties, the production of these compounds is prohibited in most developed countries [3], however, despite the cessation of production in numerous countries since the mid-seventies, PCBs are still pollutants that cause great concern at the international level [1]. Today, the use of PCBs in open systems is prohibited, so the current sources of PCBs are primarily landfills. Significant amounts of PCBs in equipment are still in use, there are certain amounts that are waiting for treatment in warehouses [17]. Illegal landfills in Montenegro represent a problem that has been fought for years, the data on illegal landfills are not complete, it is believed that there are about 400 illegal landfills in the country. Despite the strict provisions of the law, this problem is being solved slowly. For this work, soil analysis was performed near the industrial waste landfill in Nikšić, the analyzes were performed at the Center for Ecotoxicological Testing of Montenegro. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of the presence of PCBs in Montenegro, which can lead to progress in their detection and removal from the environment. The results showed that the soil near the Željezara landfill in Nikšić is highly contaminated, in soil samples from the Nikšić Željezara landfill, concentrations of PCBs, congener 138 of 0.253 mg/kg, and congener 101 at a concentration of 0.111 were determined

Utjecaj procesa pridruživanja Europskoj uniji na organizacijsku kulturu poduzeća koja posluju u tranzicijskim zemljama

The aim of this research is to reveal the direction of change the cultural dimensions of companies in AP Vojvodina, when the Republic of Serbia – as a country in transition – was being included in the European division of labor. Foreign direct investments from EU countries are used as a method of transposing cultural patterns. The research methodology used here included the application of the Mann Whitney and the Chi square tests to compare the attitudes of the managers of these two groups of companies in AP Vojvodina. The results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the attitudes of managers of the two groups of companies, in terms of the questionnaire items that explore the power distance dimension. In AP Vojvodina, masculinity and individualism are still valued to a greater extent by the managers of companies with foreign capital than by those with domestic capital. Managers of the companies with foreign capital show a higher degree of uncertainty avoidance than those with domestic capital, which is contrary to authors’ expectations, though explicable in the context of the recessionary business conditions under which the research was conducted.poduzeća koja posluju u AP Vojvodini, u momentu kada se Republika Srbija – kao tranzicijska zemlja – nalazi u procesu uključivanja u Europsku podjelu rada. Inozemna izravna ulaganja iz zemalja članica EU, služe kao metoda za prenošenja kulturnih obrazaca. Metodologija istraživanja koja je ovdje korištena uključuje primjenu Mann Whitney i hi-kvadrat testova u cilju uspoređivanja stavova menadžera dviju skupina poduzeća u AP Vojvodini. Rezultati pokazuju da ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u stavovima menadžera dvije grupe poduzeća, u odnosu na pitanja koja određuju distancu moći. U AP Vojvodini, rodno muške vrijednosti i individualizam još uvijek su cijenjene u većoj mjeri od strane menadžera poduzeća koja posluju s privatnim kapitalom stranog podrijetla u odnosu na menadžere poduzeća koja posluju s privatnim kapitalom domaćega podrijetla. Menadžeri poduzeća sa stranim kapitalom pokazuju veći stupanj izbjegavanja neizvjesnosti u odnosu na menadžere poduzeća koja posluju s privatnim kapitalom domaćeg podrijetla, što je u suprotnosti s očekivanjima autora, ali se objašnjava recesijskim uvjetima poslovanja pod kojima je provedeno istraživanje

Hypospadias

Objective. The great possibility of variations in the clinical presentation of hypospadia, makes its therapy challenging. This has led to the development of a number of techniques for hypospadia repair. This article assesses past and present concepts and operative techniques with the aim of broadening our understanding of this malformation. Materials and Methods. The article not only reviews hypospadia in general with its development and clinical presentation as well as historical and current concepts in hypospadiologie on the basis of available literature, but it is also based on our own clinical experience in the repair of this malformation. Results and Conclusion. The fact that there are great variations in the presentation and extent of malformations existent makes every hypospadia individual and a proposal of a universal comprehensive algorithm for hypospadia repair difficult. The Snodgrass technique has found wide popularity for the repair of distal hypospadias. As far as proximal hypospadias are concerned, their repair is more challenging because it not only involves urethroplasty, but can also, in some cases, fulfil the dimensions of a complex genital reconstruction. Due to the development of modern operating materials and an improvement in current surgical techniques, there has been a significant decrease in the complication rates. Nonetheless, there still is room and, therefore, need for further improvement in this field

Literatur im 21. Jahrhundert: Zeitgeistphänomene, Medienkonkurrenz, Funktion und ökonomische Aspekte der Ware Buch unter Bezugnahme auf aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Buchbranche

Welche Literatur liegt im Trend? Welche Aktionen und Instrumente bietet der Markt, um Bücher an den Leser zu vermitteln? Wie lässt sich das gegenwärtige Literaturverständnis beschreiben – auch in Abgrenzung und im Vergleich zu den etablierten Literaturtheorien? Diese allgemeinen Fragen wurden in der vorliegenden Arbeit spezialisiert und auf Schwerpunkte konzentriert. In den Vordergrund rückte – unter dem Aspekt des Zeitgeistphänomens – die junge deutsche Literatur, auf die bei diesem Projekt aus persönlichem Interesse heraus der Fokus gelegt wurde. Erforscht wurde, welche Bücher, Themen und Autoren zeitweise populär waren, wie es um Status und Selbstpräsentation letztgenannter bestellt war und ist. Als Beispiele zu nennen sind Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre und Florian Illies, beide sich ihres (Markt-)Wertes wohl bewusste Vertreter der Pop- und Generationsliteratur, die in den letzten Jahren einen Boom erlebte. Beide Schriftsteller wurden mit ihren Werken einer detailgenauen Analyse unterzogen. Spricht man über Literatur, ist es unumgänglich, das – vorherrschende – nicht unproblematische Literaturverständnis zu durchleuchten. Galten Bücher einst als Status- und Bildungssymbol, ist von dieser Wertschätzung und von solch hohem Prestige heute nicht mehr allzu viel vorhanden. Das Erarbeiten eines Literaturbegriffs bot sich in der Auseinandersetzung mit in der Germanistik gängigen Theorien an (z. B. Empirische Theorie der Literatur nach S. J. Schmidt). Reduzierte man (als ein Ergebnis) Leistung und Wert von Literatur tatsächlich nur noch auf reine, unkomplizierte und schnelllebige Unterhaltung, führte dies zwangsweise zur Frage nach einer Medienkonkurrenz in erster Linie mit dem Fernsehen, dann mit dem Computer und seinen Möglichkeiten. Im dritten und letzten Abschnitt der Arbeit wurde anhand von ausgewählten Beispielen dargestellt, wie das gegenwärtige Literaturverständnis mit dem Markt konform geht, sprich welche Aktionen an der Schnittstelle Markt – Leser stattfinden, mit denen letztere auf Literatur aufmerksam gemacht und zum Lesen animiert werden sollen. In diesem Rahmen wurde u. a. das System der Literaturkritik knapp beschrieben und anhand von drei aktuellen Rezensionsbeispielen veranschaulicht