The role of peer networks in adolescent pornography use and sexting in Croatia

ABSTRACT

Although communication about sexuality is a significant pathway through which peers influence adolescent sexual development, little research has examined the role of peer networks in the use of sexualized media. We applied a social network approach to assess the role of close peers in adolescent pornography use and sexting in a sample of Croatian high school students. Sexual conversation networks’ characteristics did not correlate with pornography use. In contrast, sexting was associated with the proportion of same gender peers, the proportion of older peers and the proportion of sexually experienced peers in the network – pointing to the role of peer influence. Participants’ gender did not moderate these associations. Specific mechanisms underlying the observed associations and the role of peer selection remain important tasks for future research.     

Autologous Blood Stem Cell Transplantation in Hematological Malignancies

Autologous blood stem cell transplants (ABSCT) are increasingly used for the treatment of haematological malignancies. The use of hemopoietic growth factors, in conjunction with stem cell mobilization by chemotherapeutic agents, has permitted successful harvests requir ing only a few leukaphereses; cells mobilized in this manner contain a relatively large number of committed precursors of all lineages, as well as early progenitor cells capable of main taining long-term haemopoiesis. Haematological recovery after ABSCT is rapid, thereby sig nificantly shortening the period of post-chemotherapy neutropenia and thrombocytopenia. Furthermore, blood-derived grafts may contain fewer malignant cells than the bone marrow cells. The preliminary results have been so encouraging that it is envisaged that in myeloma, Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, ABSCT may eventually replace autologous marrow transplantation.     

Applying spatial distribution analysis techniques to classification of 3D medical images

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to classify 3D medical images by analyzing spatial distributions to model and characterize the arrangement of the regions of interest (ROIs) in 3D space. METHODS AND MATERIAL: Two methods are proposed for facilitating such classification. The first method uses measures of similarity, such as the Mahalanobis distance and the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, to compute the difference between spatial probability distributions of ROIs in an image of a new subject and each of the considered classes represented by historical data (e.g., normal versus disease class). A new subject is predicted to belong to the class corresponding to the most similar dataset. The second method employs the maximum likelihood (ML) principle to predict the class that most likely produced the dataset of the new subject. RESULTS: The proposed methods have been experimentally evaluated on three datasets: synthetic data (mixtures of Gaussian distributions), realistic lesion-deficit data (generated by a simulator conforming to a clinical study), and functional MRI activation data obtained from a study designed to explore neuroanatomical correlates of semantic processing in Alzheimer's disease (AD). CONCLUSION: Performed experiments demonstrated that the approaches based on the KL divergence and the ML method provide superior accuracy compared to the Mahalanobis distance. The later technique could still be a method of choice when the distributions differ significantly, since it is faster and less complex. The obtained classification accuracy with errors smaller than 1% supports that useful diagnosis assistance could be achieved assuming sufficiently informative historic data and sufficient information on the new subject.     

ICPC-2--international classification of primary health care and its application in Croatian health care

A consensus reached by the medical profession, Croatian Institute of Health Insurance, Croatian Institute of Public Health, and Ministry of Health constitutes a solution to the problem of a data standard required in building an information system for primary health care. This consists of accepting ICPC-2 as a data standard for our Family Medicine, Pediatrics and Women's Health. The classification structure of the International Classification of Primary Care allows, recommends and urges that special codes be established by individual states or local authorities when registering patients' reasons for seeking medical aid or medical procedures. Namely, it urges the authorities to set the codes for such reasons about which a state or local agreement or determination has been made. This is the first public presentation of the proposal Croatia's Additions to the International Classification of Primary Care. They are essential to its implementation in our health insurance, health statistics and medical informatics.     

Interferon Gamma Alters the Phenotype of Rat Thymic Epithelial Cells in Culture and Increases Interleukin-6 Production

Rat thymic epithelial cells (TEC) in long-term culture were characterized by anticytokeratin monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and electron microscopy. Phenotypic analysis performed by a large panel of mAbs showed that the highest percentage of these cells was of the subcapsular/medullary type. Recombinant rat interferon (IFN)-gamma up-regulated class-I and class-II MHC expression by TEC in culture as confirmed by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry, but did not significantly alter other cell markers. TEC supernatants of IFN-gamma- treated cultures showed higher interleukin-6 (IL-6) activity, compared to the control, as determined by proliferation of the IL-6-sensitive B9-cell line. Increased IL-6 activity was probably not a consequence of increased TEC number in IFN-gammatreated cultures because IFN did not significantly stimulate TEC proliferation in vitro. In contrast, IL-6 significantly stimulated TEC proliferation, indicating that this cytokine is not only a regulatory molecule for T-cell proliferation, but could also be an autocrine growth factor for thymic epithelium.     

Ageing is associated with a decrease in the number of sarcolemmal ATP-sensitive K+ channels in a gender-dependent manner

The opening of sarcolemmal K(ATP) channels is considered to be an important endogenous cardioprotective mechanism. On the other hand, age-dependent changes in the myocardial susceptibility to ischemia and hypoxia have been observed in different species, including humans. Here, we have hypothesized that aging might be associated with the changes in sarcolemmal K(ATP) channels. Therefore, the main objective of the present study was to establish whether aging changes expression of cardiac sarcolemmal ATP-sensitive K+ (K(ATP)) channels. RT-PCR using primers specific for K(ATP) channel subunits, Kir6.2, Kir6.1 and SUR2A subunits was performed using total RNA from guinea-pig ventricular tissue. Whole cell electrophysiology was done on isolated guinea-pig ventricular cardiomyocytes. Western blotting using anti-Kir6.2 and anti-SUR2A antibodies was performed on cardiac membrane fraction. Tissue and cells were harvested from young and old, male and female guinea-pigs. RT-PCR analysis did not reveal significant age-related changes in levels of Kir6.1 or Kir6.2 mRNAs. However, levels of SUR2A were significantly lower in old than in young females. Such age-differences were not observed with cardiac tissue from male animals. In both old and young males, pinacidil (100 microM) induced outward currents. The difference between current density of pinacidil-sensitive component in females, but not males, was statistically significant. Western blotting analysis revealed higher levels of Kir6.2 and SUR2A proteins in cardiac membrane fraction from young than old females. The present study demonstrates that in females, but not males, aging is associated with decrease in number of cardiac K(ATP) channels which is due to decrease in levels of the SUR2A subunit.     

Point-of-care measured serum cholinesterase activity predicts patient outcome following severe burns

Risk stratification is of utmost importance in burn therapy. However, suitable bedside biomarkers to evaluate the emerging inflammatory response following burn injuries are missing. Serum cholinesterase (butyrylcholinesterase, BChE) has been shown to be a clinically relevant biomarker in acute inflammatory diseases including burns.In this observational cohort study BChE activity was measured by using point-of-care testing (POCT), a novel method in acute burn care. POCT measurements were performed at emergency room admission (ERA) of 35 patients and repeated 12, 24 and 48 h later. All patients or their legal designees gave informed consent.Patients with burn injuries showed sustained BChE activity reduction following hospital admission. BChE activity correlated negatively with burn injury severity, organ failure severity and intensive care unit resource requirements. BChE activity measured at ERA and 12 h later identified survivors and predicted 28-day patient outcome with noninferior efficacy compared to the abbreviated burn severity index (ABSI) scoring. Finally, POCT-measured BChE activity might complement ABSI scoring and possibly improve early risk stratification in acute burn care therapy.     

Human V5/MT+: comparison of functional and cytoarchitectonic data

To date, the delineation of the human visual “motion area” still relies on functional paradigms originally devised to identify monkey area MT. Using fMRI, we have identified putative human area V5/MT+ in normals by modelling the BOLD responses to alternating radially moving and stationary dot patterns. Functional activations were compared with cytoarchitectonic probability maps of its putative correlate area hOc5, which was calculated based upon data from histological sections of ten human post-mortem brains. Bilateral visual cortex activations were seen in the single subject dynamic versus stationary contrasts and in the group random-effects analysis. Comparison of group data with area hOc5 revealed that 19.0%/39.5% of the right/left functional activation was assigned to the right/left hOc5. Conversely, 83.2%/53.5% of the right/left hOc5 was functionally activated. Comparison of functional probability maps (fPM) with area hOc5 showed that 28.6%/18.1% of the fPM was assigned to hOc5. In turn, 84.9%/41.5% of the area hOc5 was covered by the respective fPM. Thus, random-effects data and fPMs yielded similar results. The present study shows for the first time the correspondence between the functionally defined human V5/MT+ and the post-mortem cytoarchitectonic area hOc5.     

Risk factors for nipple involvement in breast cancer patients

Introduction: A clinically normal‐appearing nipple in patients with breast cancer may contain unsuspected neoplastic cells. Preservation of a nipple containing occult malignancy could potentially increase local recurrence rates and affect disease‐free survival. Consequently, patients considered for breast conservation operations with nipple preservation must be carefully selected. Methods: Information available on 382 patients diagnosed and treated with breast cancer at the Clinical Center Nis from 2000 to 2003 were retrospectively reviewed. Multivariate hazard analyses was used to assess the association between potential risk factors of cancerous nipple involvement. Results: The frequency of nipple involvement was 12.04%. Nearly half of the patients had disease stage III and IV. Most patients, 29 (63.04%), had a tumor to nipple distance of less then 2 cm. Twenty‐five patients (54.34%) had more then four positive axillary nodes. A central/overlap tumor location was present in 28 (60.87%) patients. Cox multivariate analysis of prognostic factors showed that Stage III (RH 4.79 (1.50–14.68, 1.50–14.72); P= 0.008), central/overlap tumor location (RH 3.28 (0.90–11.20); P= 0.078) and nuclear grade III or greater (RH 2.26 (0.79 to 6.65); P= 0.065) had a statistically significant effect on malign nipple involvement. Conclusions: The multivariable model used in this study showed a significant association between stage, centrally located tumors and nuclear grade III or greater in predicting the risk of cancerous nipple involvement. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography scan examinations are recommended for treatment planning of breast cancer, in particular nipple preserving surgery in patients with central/overlap tumor localization and with a tumor to nipple distance of less than 2 cm.