The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is becoming a more attractive tourist destination with a significant increase in the number of tourists and overnight stays. The purpose of this study was to ...evaluate the presence of
Legionella
spp. in tourist facilities of FB&H. The aim is to point out the growing trend of the presence of
Legionella
spp. and to investigate the connection of environmental factors, temperature, and chlorine as disinfectants, with the occurrence of these bacteria in the water systems of tourist and public facilities.
The research included the period from 2014 to 2018. Of the total number of analyzed samples (
n
= 237), the presence of legionella was confirmed in 61 samples (25.74 %), while in 176 (74.26 %) samples it was not confirmed. Among the confirmed cases of legionella (
n
= 61), the part of those in which the absence of chlorine was determined was 40 (65.58 %). There is a significant statistical difference of positive samples about to with concerning to the presence of chlorine in the water. Of the total number of positive samples (
n
= 61), 29 were associated with hot water. The mean temperature in the positive samples was 51.79 °C (s.d. = 10.94, min.31.9, max.69). The results of the analysis indicate seasonal trends in the presence of legionella with a peak in months during the preparation for the winter tourist season (fourth quarter).
Listeria je patogen prenosiv hranom i predstavlja veliku opasnost za ljudsko zdravlje. Teški su simptomi praćeni visokom stopom mortaliteta većinom prouzročeni L. monocytogenes. Bez obzira na ...politiku nulte tolerancije, rod Listeria je još uvijek prisutan u sirovim proizvodima i proizvodima spremnim za konzumiranje, predstavljajući veliku opasnost za zdravlje ljudi. Za sada još u bliskoj budućnosti ne postoje studije o kontaminaciji hrane vrstama Listeria u Bosni i Hercegovini. Ovim istraživanjem htjeli smo dobiti osnovne podatke o količini kontaminiranosti hrane ovim patogenom. U studiji je analizirano ukupno 238 uzoraka hrane, pri čemu su u 105 uzorka bile različite vrste sirove hrane te 133 uzorka hrane spremne za konzumaciju (gotove hrane). Od ukupno 238 uzoraka, 18 uzoraka je bilo pozitivno na Listeria vrste. Nakon izolacije i detekcije, konfirmacija pozitivnih izolata Listeria spp. je provedena pomoću biokemijskog kita API® Listeria.
Motivation/Background: positive staphylococci (CPS) are common contaminants of raw milk. Before it is used, various heat treatments are applied to destroy microorganisms, inactivate enzymes and ...improve technological properties and concentration of dry matter of milk. This work aimed to determine the influence of commonly used heat treatments in diary on presence and number CPS in raw milk from Bosnia and Herzegovina area and to affirm whether there is a difference in efficacy between different treatments.
Method: Using the standard method, 40 samples of raw milk from farms were inoculated for counting the initial number of CPS in raw milk. Samples were then exposed to heat treatments in vapor sterilizer and CPS number was counted using the same standard method.
Results: Applied treatments included heat treatments at: 68 °C/40 s, 70 °C/15 s, 72 °C/without holding, 63 °C/30 min and 72 °C/15 s. CPS presence was detected in all tested samples of raw milk in numbers ranging from 2,82 to 5,32, with an average of 4,30, calculated as log10 /ml.
Conclusions: Raw milk samples collected in the field initially registered a high CPS number. The applied heat treatments were effective to a large extent. The initial CPS count of milk seems to be the most important factor determining the number of CPS after heat treatments as well as traits of the strains.
Introduction: Legionella bacteria are ubiquitous microorganisms mostly found in artificial water environments, especially those which produce aerosol, such as swimming pools, saunas, and spas. ...Development of Legionella depends on several factors, including water temperature and chlorine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of Legionella spp. to the temperature and free residual chlorine in tap water, water from fountains, swimming pools, cooling and heating systems.
Methods: We collected 238 samples of water taken from different places and analyzed the presence of Legionella spp. by BAS EN ISO 11731-2:2009 - Water quality – Detection and enumeration of Legionella - Part 2: A direct membrane filtration method for waters with low bacterial counts, as samples were the waters with low expectancy of bacterial contamination compared to the temperature and free residual chlorine. The X2 test was used to show statistical significance.
Results: Legionella spp. was detected in 18.62% of tap water and in 8.82% samples of water taken from fountains, swimming pools, and cooling and heating systems. The highest number of positive samples were detected in waters with the temperature higher than 20°C and lower than 50°C. The highest number of positive samples were reported by the concentration of free residual chlorine lower than 0.2 mg/l. The X2 test showed a statistically significant difference between positive and negative results for the presence of Legionella spp. among three groups of water samples.
Conclusion: The research has shown a connection between environmental factors and the presence of Legionella spp. in the water systems of public and tourist facilities.
A large number of different diseases are associated with the consumption of hygienic defective water and the use of water for maintaining personal hygiene. Recreational waters, water in systems ...intended for cooling and heating of public buildings are also significant. Among these diseases, the most significant is legionellosis, the disease which has become more and more important in the whole world in recent years. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the connection of hygienic conditions in public buildings with the appearance of genus Legionella in drinking and bathing water, as well as water from outside and inside fountains, pools and water from cooling and heating systems for public buildings. Obtained results are also used to evaluate the risk of developing legionellosis in the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina and among foreign tourists. The presence of Legionella spp. was analysed in 238 samples of water taken from faucets in rooms of buildings intended for people's accommodation, in open and closed fountains, pools, cooling and water systems. Hygienic conditions in the facilities were assessed using survey questionnaire and complemented with legionella findings. This study showed the direct correlation between hygienic conditions in public and tourist facilities with the presence of Legionella spp. in the waters taken in these objects.
For an organism to function normally, it must maintain a proper diet. Many factors impact the eating habits of the population, including information about food. Information comes from many sources, ...but the population is mostly informed through media and food declarations. This study aims to uncover the difference between informed and uninformed respondents and determine the impact of media on the eating habits of the population. The research was conducted using an online questionnaire in which 225 responders participated. Our results confirm that there is no statistically significant difference between the eating habits of informed and uninformed consumers. The impact of media on choices of sweets and fast food was also confirmed, as well as the direct impact of advertisements for sweets and fast food on food choices and consumer awareness.
Legionella bacteria are microorganisms found in water and moist soil. They are especially favoured by moisture and heat, especially in different types of swimming pools where these bacteria reproduce ...and survive even for several months. Legionella spp. cause human diseases if they are introduced into the body through the respiratory tract. This most often happens by inhalation of aerosols, and less often by microaspiration of water contaminated with Legionella. The research aims to examine the presence of Legionella spp. bacteria in pool waters and the factors that influence their maintenance in these waters. Water samples were taken from 13 swimming pools that were registered for swimming and recreation in the Central Bosnian Canton in 2022. The presence of legionella was tested, and temperature, pH values (method BAS EN ISO 10523:2013), and residual chlorine concentrations were measured.
The temperature was measured by immersing the probe with a calibrated thermometer until the stabilization of temperature values on the display was reached. The free residual chlorine was measured by the standard colourimetric technique – the N, N-diethyl-phenylenediamine method (HANNA Instruments 96701, Rhode Island, USA). Descriptive statistics and the Chi-square test will be used for data analysis. Statistical analysis of the obtained data will be performed using the basic functions of MS Excel and GraphPad Prism. Of the total number of analyzed samples (n = 13), the presence of legionella was confrmed in 4 samples (31 %). The average water temperature of the samples taken was 30.21 0C and the average residual chlorine value was 0.43 mg/L, while the average pH value in the tested water samples was 6.48. There is a significant statistical difference in temperature, free residual chlorine concentration, and pH value with the presence of Legionella spp. The correlation between water temperature and the number of isolated bacteria was negative, i.e. as the water temperature increases, the number of isolated bacteria decreases. The correlation between residual chlorine and isolated bacteria indicates that there is a moderate negative association between these two variables. The presence of Legionella spp. in the pools in the investigated area is evident. The values of temperature, residual chlorine, and pH values that positively affect its growth and reproduction. To prevent the occurrence of diseases, it is important to regularly monitor and test the hygienic correctness of pool water, including the detection of Legionella.
Introduction:
COVID-19 has been a major focus of scientific research since early 2020. Due to its societal, economic, and clinical impact worldwide, research efforts aimed, among other questions, to ...address the effect of host genetics in susceptibility and severity of COVID-19.
Methods:
We, therefore, performed next-generation sequencing of coding and regulatory regions of 16 human genes, involved in maintenance of the immune system or encoding receptors for viral entry into the host cells, in a subset of 60 COVID-19 patients from the General Hospital Tešanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, classified into three groups of clinical conditions of different severity (“mild,” “moderate,” and “severe”).
Results:
We confirmed that the male sex and older age are risk factors for severe clinical picture and identified 13 variants on seven genes (
CD55, IL1B, IL4, IRF7, DDX58, TMPRSS2
, and
ACE2
) with potential functional significance, either as genetic markers of modulated susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection or modifiers of the infection severity. Our results include variants reported for the first time as potentially associated with COVID-19, but further research and larger patient cohorts are required to confirm their effect.
Discussion:
Such studies, focused on candidate genes and/or variants, have a potential to answer the questions regarding the effect of human genetic makeup on the expected infection outcome. In addition, loci we identified here were previously reported to have clinical significance in other diseases and viral infections, thus confirming a general, broader significance of COVID-19-related research results following the end of the pandemic period.
Human Y-chromosomal haplogroups are an important tool used in population genetics and forensic genetics. A conventional method used for Y haplogroup assignment is based on a set of Y-single ...nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers deployed, which exploits the low mutation rate nature of these markers. Y chromosome haplogroups can be successfully predicted from Y-short tandem repeat (STR) markers using different software packages, and this method gained much attention recently due to its labor-, time-, and cost-effectiveness. The present study was based on the analysis of a total of 480 adult male buccal swab samples collected from different regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Y haplogroup prediction was performed using Whit Athey’s Haplogroup Predictor, based on haplotype data on 23 Y-STR markers contained within the PowerPlex® Y23 kit. The results revealed the existence of 14 different haplogroups, with I2a, R1a, and E1b1b being the most prevalent with frequencies of 43.13, 14.79, and 14.58%, respectively. Compared to the previously published studies on Bosnian-Herzegovinian population based on Y-SNP and Y-STR data, this study represents an upgrade of molecular genetic data with a significantly larger number of samples, thus offering more accurate results and higher probability of detecting rare haplogroups.
Glucosylceramidase (GCase) is a lysosomal enzyme that catalyzes the cleavage of β-glucosidic linkage of glucocerebroside (GC) into glucose and ceramide; thereby, plays an essential function in the ...degradation of complex lipids and the turnover of cellular membranes.
The growing list of 460 mutations in the gene coding for it—glucosylceramidase beta acid 1 (GBA1)—is reported to abolish its catalytic activity and decrease its enzyme stability, associating it with severe health conditions such as Gaucher disease (GD), Parkinson Disease (PD) and Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).
Although the three-dimensional structure of wild type glucosylceramidase is elucidated, little is known about its features in human cells. Moreover, alternative sources of GCase that prove to be effective in the treatment of diseases with enzyme treatment therapies, impose the need for a simple and cost-effective procedure to study the enzyme behavior. This work, for the first time, shows a well-established, yet simple, cost- and time-efficient protocol for the study of GCase enzyme in human leukocytes by the artificial substrate p-Nitrophenyl-β-D-glucopyranoside (PNPG). Characterization of the enzyme in human leukocytes for activation parameters (optimal pH, Km, and Vmax) and enzyme inhibition was done. The results indicate that the optimum pH of GCase enzyme with PNPG is 5.0. The Km and Vmax values are 12.6mM and 333 U/mg, respectively. Gluconolactone competitively inhibits GCase, with a Ki value of 0.023 mM and IC50 of 0.047 mM. Glucose inhibition is uncompetitive with a Ki of 1.94 mM and IC50 of 55.3 mM. This is the first report for the inhibitory effect of glucose, δ-gluconolactone on human leukocyte GCase activity.
Proteins; Biochemistry; Molecular Biology; Hematological System; Clinical Research; glucosylceramidase; glucosylceramide; PNPG; human leukocyte; enzyme kinetics; inhibition parameters; Gaucher Disease; glucose; gluconolactone.
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