This article examines audio-visual discontinuity in Ognjen Glavonić's 2015 documentary Depth 2 and argues that this approach to sound and screen allows the audience to engage with the difficult topic ...of war crimes in a novel manner in order to address a failure in cultural memory in Serbian society. The documentary explores war crimes committed against Kosovo Albanian civilians by Serbian state forces and paramilitaries in the spring of 1999. Depth 2 cinematically recontextualizes recorded testimonies of both survivors and perpetrators from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), defamiliarizing the archive by anonymizing the source material and by removing the synchrony between voice and image. The lack of concordance between voice and screen is a key aesthetic strategy through which the film comments on pressing ethical, political, and historical issues in Serbian society.
In Writing the Yugoslav Wars, Dragana Obradović analyses how the Yugoslav wars of secession helped shape the region’s literary culture. Obradović argues that the crisis of the country’s ...disintegration posed an ethical challenge to self-identified postmodernists. This book takes a transnational approach to literatures of the former Yugoslavia that have been, since the 1990s, studied separately, in line with geopolitical divisions. This post-socialist conflict was one of the moments that reshaped postmodernism for both local and international thinkers, much in the same way modernism was shaped by World War I and the advent of mechanized warfare.
Background:
Diroximel fumarate (DRF) is a novel oral fumarate for patients with relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). DRF and the approved drug dimethyl fumarate yield bioequivalent exposure ...to the active metabolite monomethyl fumarate; thus, efficacy/safety profiles are expected to be similar. However, DRF’s distinct chemical structure may result in a differentiated gastrointestinal (GI) tolerability profile.
Objective:
To report interim safety/efficacy findings from patients in the ongoing EVOLVE-MS-1 study.
Methods:
EVOLVE-MS-1 is an ongoing, open-label, 96-week, phase 3 study assessing DRF safety, tolerability, and efficacy in RRMS patients. Primary endpoint is safety and tolerability; efficacy endpoints are exploratory.
Results:
As of March 2018, 696 patients were enrolled; median exposure was 59.9 (range: 0.1–98.9) weeks. Adverse events (AEs) occurred in 84.6% (589/696) of patients; the majority were mild (31.2%; 217/696) or moderate (46.8%; 326/696) in severity. Overall treatment discontinuation was 14.9%; 6.3% due to AEs and <1% due to GI AEs. At Week 48, mean number of gadolinium-enhancing lesions was significantly reduced from baseline (77%; p < 0.0001) and adjusted annualized relapse rate was low (0.16; 95% confidence interval: 0.13–0.20).
Conclusion:
Interim data from EVOLVE-MS-1 suggest DRF is a well-tolerated treatment with a favorable safety/efficacy profile for patients with RRMS.
Objectives
The aim of our study was to analyze oxidative stress (OS) markers in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients during relapse and remission and to evaluate the effects of corticosteroid relapse ...treatment on oxidative status, and also to determine possible relationship between OS markers and relapse disability recovery after corticosteroid treatment.
Methods
Our study included 118 MS patients, (59 relapse/59 remission) 70 females and 48 males, mean age 40.2 ± 9.4 years, and 88 matched healthy controls. Undergoing disease-modifying therapy (DMT) was present in 30.5% of relapse and 88% of remission MS patients. We analyzed in plasma/serum the following: pro-oxidative–antioxidative balance (PAB), nitrates and nitrites (NO
3
+ NO
2
), malondialdehyde (MDA), advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), uric acid, bilirubin, albumin, and transferrin in all patients and additionally after corticosteroid relapse treatment. Neurological disability was measured using the Extended Disability Status Scale (EDSS).
Results
Better clinical recovery after relapse treatment was associated with increased baseline SOD, decreased AOPP, and ongoing DMT (all
p
< 0.05). There was no difference between OS markers in relapse and remission. MS patients had higher MDA, NO
3
+ NO
2
, PAB, SOD, CAT, lower AOPP, uric acid, albumin, bilirubin, and transferrin compared to controls (all
p
< 0.05). Corticosteroids caused significant decrease of all OS markers (all
p
< 0.05).
Conclusion
Increased baseline antioxidative activity of SOD and decreased baseline levels of pro-oxidant AOPP along with ongoing DMT were related to better clinical recovery after corticosteroid relapse treatment. Increase of pro-oxidants and antioxidant enzyme activity in relapse and remission confirms ongoing oxidative injury irrelevant of MS clinical presentation.
In this article, the authors analyse the existing foreign insolvency prediction models of the company and on the basis of the sample of solvent and insolvent companies they aim to develop a new model ...to predict insolvency of a company by binomial logistic regression (LR), which will be suitable for the business environment in the Republic of Serbia. The research seeks to determine statistically most important financial ratios in predicting insolvency of Serbian companies. As a result of research, a model for the prediction of bankruptcy was created, which accurately classifies 82.9% of solvent ('healthy') Serbian companies and 93.3% of Serbian companies which have undergone bankruptcy proceedings (Serbian insolvent companies), while the average (total) accuracy of the prediction model is 88.4% of the cases.
Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a potentially life threating event, but there are scarce data about genderrelated differences in this condition. The aim of this study was to identify gender-specific ...differences in clinical presentation, the diagnosis and outcome between male and female patients with PE.
We analysed the data of 144 consecutive patients with PE (50% women) and compared female and male patients regarding clinical presentation, electrocardiography (ECG) signs, basic laboratory markers and six-month outcome. All the patients confirmed PE by visualized thrombus on the multidetector computed tomography with pulmonary angiography (MDCTPA), ECG and echocardiographic examination at admission.
Compared to the men, the women were older and a larger proportion of them was in the third tertile of age (66.0% vs 34.0%, p = 0.008). In univariate analysis the men more often had hemoptysis OR (95% CI) 3.75 (1.16-12.11), chest pain OR (95% CI) 3.31 (1.57-7.00) febrile state OR (95% CI) 2.41 (1.12-5.22) and pneumonia at PE presentation OR (95% CI) 3.40 (1.25-9.22) and less likely had heart decompensation early in the course of the disease OR (95%CI) 0.48 (0.24-0.97). In the multivariate analysis a significant difference in the rate of pneumonia and acute heart failure between genders disappeared due to strong influence of age. There was no significant difference in the occurrence of typical ECG signs for PE between the genders. Women had higher level of admission glycaemia 7.7 mmol/L (5.5-8.2 mmol/L) vs 6.9 mmol/L (6.3-9.6 mmol/L), p = 0.006 and total number of leukocytes 10.5 x 109/L (8.8-12.7 x 109/L vs 8.7 x 109/L (7.0-11.6 x 109/L)), p = 0.007. There was a trend toward higher plasma level of brain natriuretic peptide in women compared to men 127.1 pg/mL (55.0-484.0 pg/mL), p = 0.092 vs 90.3 pg/mL (39.2-308.5 pg/mL). The main 6-month outcomes, death and major bleeding, had similar frequencies in both sexes.
There are several important differences between men and women in the clinical presentation of PE and basic laboratory findings which can influence the diagnosis and treatment of PE.
Dubravka Ugrešićʼs The Museum of Unconditional Surrender is a melancholy text of nostalgia-inflected memory that communicates experience and narrative through material objects (socialist era ...paraphernalia, for example). Such projects can be perceived as trivial in their encounter with history because they commodify knowledge of the past without being critical of the foundations of their memory. This article traces how these anxieties and questions about value – monetary, historic, aesthetic – are embedded within Ugrešićʼs novel through the literary idiom of flânerie. Walking the streets of Berlin is less about acts of remembrance than the provenance of the narratorʼs own labour. By examining these depictions of the writerʼs industry, this essay highlights the processes by which aesthetic and mnemonic properties are discovered (or recovered) in order to give value to socialist ruins, memorabilia and commonplace objects.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated central nervous system disease characterized by inflammation, demyelination and axonal degeneration. Cytokines are proven mediators of immunological ...process in MS. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a difference in the production of the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma in the MS patients and the controls (other neurological non-inflammatory diseases) and to determine a possible difference in these cytokines in plasma and CSF in different clinical forms of MS.
This study involved 60 consecutive MS patients--48 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and 12 patients with secondary progressive MS (SPMS). The control group consisted of 20, age and sex matched, non-immunological, neurological patients. According to the clinical presentation of MS at the time of this investigation, 34 (56.7%) patients had relapse (RRMS), 14 (23.3%) were in remission (RRMS), while the rest of the patients, 12 (20.0%), were SPMS. TNF-alpha and IL-4 concentrations were measured in the same time in CSF and plasma in the MS patients and the controls. Extended disability status score (EDSS), albumin ratio and IgG index were determined in all MS patients.
The MS patients had significantly higher CSF and plasma levels of TNF-alpha than the controls (p < 0.001 for both samples). IL-4 CSF levels were significantly lower in the MS patients than in the controls (p < 0.001), however plasma levels were similar. The patients in relapse (RRMS) and with progressive disease (SPMS) had higher concentrations of CSF TNF-alpha levels than the patients in remission (p < 0.001). IL-4 CSF levels in relapse (RRMS) and SPMS groups were lower than in the patients in remission. The patients in remission had an unmeasurable plasma TNF-alpha level and the patients with SPMS had significantly lower IL-4 levels in plasma than the patients in relapse and remission (p < 0.001). The only significant correlation between cytokine level with either EDSS, or albumin ratio, or IgG index, was found between CSF TNF-alpha levels and albumin ratio in the patients with relapse (R square = 0.431, p < 0.001).
According to the obtained data MS relapse was characterized by high concentrations of TNF-alpha in CSF and plasma and low concentrations of IL-4 in CSF. Remission was characterized by high concentrations of IL-4 and low concentrations of TNF-alpha both in CSF and plasma. SPMS was characterized with lower concentrations of TNF-alpha and IL-4 compared to relapse, both in CSF and plasma.
Background/Aim. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is an important messenger in the
regeneration process which might influence the outcome of patients with
ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). ...The aim of this study was
to investigate the role of PTH in comparison to other traditionally used
markers for the prediction of heart failure in STEMI patients. Methods. In
165 consecutive patients with STEMI treated with primary percutaneous
coronary intervention (PCI), blood concentrations of PTH, C-reactive protein
(CRP), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), creatine kinase MB (CK-MB) and
admission glycaemia (AG) were measured during the first three days after
admission and correlated to the primary outcome - episodes of acute heart
failure in the period of six months. Results. The area under the ROC curve of
the maximal serum concentration of PTH was the largest among the measured
biomarkers (0.867 vs 0.835 vs 0.832 vs 0.627 vs 0.619, for PTH, CRP, BNP,
CK-MB and AG, respectively) for the prediction of primary outcome. The
maximal PTH level adjusted to several risk factors had an independent
prediction value for primary outcome (p < 0.001). In addition, PTH improved
the prediction of primary outcome when added to the other markers in the
model cstatistic with BNP, CRP, CK-MB and AG was 0.908 (95% CI
0.849-0.967), and when PTH was added, it was 0.931 (0.883-0.980), with p <
0.001 for the discrimination. Conclusion. Serum concentration of PTH early in
the course of STEMI can predict acute heart failure episodes in the first six
months in patients treated with primary PCI.
nema
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