Survey of legislative frameworks and national recommendations governing paediatric maintenance haemodialysis in Europe.

Background: The application of international recommendations for paediatric maintenance haemodialysis (HD) could be strengthened by national laws or written recommendations. Our aim was therefore to describe the national rules governing paediatric maintenance HD in European countries.

Methods: A national representative, approved by the president of each paediatric nephrology society, was contacted in all 42 European countries to complete two online questionnaires.

Achievements, priorities and strategies in pediatric nephrology in Europe: need for unifying approaches or acceptance of differences?

Background: There is a lack of information on the current healthcare systems for children with kidney diseases across Europe. The aim of this study was to explore the different national approaches to the organization and delivery of pediatric nephrology services within Europe.

Methods: In 2020, the European society for Paediatric Nephrology (ESPN) conducted a cross-sectional survey to identify the existing pediatric nephrology healthcare systems in 48 European countries covering a population of more than 200 million children.

Exploring tissue permeability of brain tumours in different grades: Insights from pore-scale fluid dynamics analysis.

Interstitial fluid (ISF) flow is identified as an essential physiological process that plays an important role in the development and progression of brain tumours. However, the relationship between the permeability of the tumour tissue, a complex porous medium, and the interstitial fluid flow around the tumour cells at the microscale is not well understood. To shed light on this issue, and in the absence of experimental techniques that can provide direct measurements, we develop a computational model to predict the tissue permeability of brain tumours in different grades by analysing the ISF flow at the pore scale.

Diversity of kidney care referral pathways in national child health systems of 48 European countries.

Background: Primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare services in Europe create complex networks covering pediatric subspecialties, sociology, economics and politics. Two surveys of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology (ESPN) in 1998 and 2017 revealed substantial disparities of kidney care among European countries. The purpose of the third ESPN survey is to further identify national differences in the conceptualization and organization of European pediatric kidney health care pathways during and outside normal working hours.

The Rationale of Complement Blockade of the MCP Haplotype following Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome of Three Southeastern European Countries with a Literature Review.

We present eight cases of the homozygous MCPggaac haplotype, which is considered to increase the likelihood and severity of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), especially in combination with additional risk aHUS mutations. Complement blockade (CBT) was applied at a median age of 92 months (IQR 36-252 months). The median number of relapses before CBT initiation (Eculizumab) was two.

Outcomes of acute kidney injury in critically ill children who need renal replacement therapy.

Aim To determine an outcome of acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically ill children (CIC) who needed renal replacement therapy (RRT) and were admitted to the Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PICU and NICU) at the Paediatric Clinic, University Clinical Centre Sarajevo (UCCS). Methods The research included 81 children with AKI. The Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria to define AKI was used.

The Causes of Acute Kidney Injury in Critically Ill Children Who Needs Renal Replacement Therapy.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is the result of various causes and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality as well as long-term renal sequelae in pediatric patients.

Objectives: The aim of the study is to determine the causes of AKI in pediatric patients who needed renal replacement therapy (RRT) and were admitted to the Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PICU and NICU) at the Pediatric Clinic, University Clinical Center Sarajevo (UCCS).

Methods: Our research included 81 children with AKI who needed RRT.

Impact of grain roughness on residual nonwetting phase cluster size distribution in packed columns of uniform spheres.

We imaged the pore-scale distribution of air and water within packed columns of glass spheres of different textures using x-ray microcomputed tomography after primary drainage and after secondary imbibition. Postimbibition residual air saturation increases with roughness size. Clusters larger than a critical size of about 15 to 40 pores are distributed according to a power law, with exponents ranging from τ=2.

The successful discrimination of depression from EEG could be attributed to proper feature extraction and not to a particular classification method.

Reliable diagnosis of depressive disorder is essential for both optimal treatment and prevention of fatal outcomes. This study aimed to elucidate the effectiveness of two non-linear measures, Higuchi's Fractal Dimension (HFD) and Sample Entropy (SampEn), in detecting depressive disorders when applied on EEG. HFD and SampEn of EEG signals were used as features for seven machine learning algorithms including Multilayer Perceptron, Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machines with the linear and polynomial kernel, Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Naïve Bayes classifier, discriminating EEG between healthy control subjects and patients diagnosed with depression.

Modeling of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopic data analysis by an automatic classifier.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a multi-elemental and real-time analytical technique with simultaneous detection of all the elements in any type of sample matrix including solid, liquid, gas, and aerosol. LIBS produces vast amount of data which contains information on elemental composition of the material among others. Classification and discrimination of spectra produced during the LIBS process are crucial to analyze the elements for both qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Evaluation of Congenital Hydronephrosis with Static and Dynamic Magnetic Resonance Urography in Comparation to Dynamic Renal Scintigraphy.

Introduction: Congenital hydronephrosis (CH) is a condition with dilated renal pelvis with or without dilation of renal calyces.

Aim: To examine the role of magnetic resonance urography in the detection of congenital hydronephrosis in comparison to dynamic renal scintigraphy (DRS).

Patients And Methods: Resarch included 58 (n=58) patients with diagnosis of congenital unilateral or bilateral dilatation of kidney duct system.

Evaluation of non-Gaussian statistical properties in virtual breast phantoms.

Images derived from a "virtual phantom" can be useful in characterizing the performance of imaging systems. This has driven the development of virtual breast phantoms implemented in simulation environments. In breast imaging, several such phantoms have been proposed.

Vesicoureteral Reflux and Renal Scarring in Infants After the First Febrile Urinary Tract Infection.

Introduction: The objective of this research was to determine whether vesicoureteral reflux(VUR) was associated with evolution to renal scarring (RS) following a febrile urinary tract infection (UTI) in infants.

Materials And Methods: Our research included 100 infants, ages up to 1 year with a first febrile UTI. The diagnostic was based on results of: laboratory findings, ultrasonography (USG), voiding cystourethrography (VCUG) and initial and control renal scintigraphy (DMSA renal scan) withtechnetiumTcsuccimer (dimercaptosuccinic acid), to assess the acute pyelonephritis (APN), VUR and RS.

Earliest Known Hominin Calcar Femorale in Orrorin tugenensis Provides Further Internal Anatomical Evidence for Origin of Human Bipedal Locomotion.

The calcar femorale (CF), a plate of dense bone internal to the lesser trochanter, is visible on computed tomographic images of the 6 million-year-old femoral fragment BAR 1003'00 (from the taxon Orrorin tugenensis), among the oldest specimens relevant to reconstructing the evolution of human bipedal locomotion. A strongly expressed CF has been used previously as an indicator of bipedality. If true, then there should be a quantifiable difference in the CF among hominoids.

Children with Steroid-Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome: A Single -Center Experience.

Background: Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is one of the most frequent glomerular diseases among children. While most of the children with primary NS respond to steroid treatment, 10 to 20% of the patients are steroid-resistant, and the best therapy for such cases has never been defined.

Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) patients.

Influence of Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor -1 Gene Polymorphism on Renal Scarring After First Febrile Urinary Tract Infection in Infants.

Background: The pathogenesis of renal scarring (RS) after first febrile urinary tract infection (UTI) in children is multifactorial. In addition to well-known risk factors, a role for genetic predisposition has been suggested.

Aims: To determine whether deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) polymorphisms at the plasminogen activator inhibitor -1 (PAI-1) gene were associated with evolution to RS following a febrile UTI in infants.

Plasmapheresis in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Introduction: Plasmapheresis also known as a therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is extracorporeal procedure by which individual components of plasma that are harmful or blood cells can be removed from organism by using a blood separation technology.

Aim: To present the results of the implementation of plasmapheresis in children in the Department of Pediatric Intensive Care of Pediatric Clinic, Clinical center of Sarajevo University, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Patients And Methods: Research (period from December 2011 to June 2016) analyzed 66 plasmapheresis (11 patients-6 plasmapheresis per patient).

Description and characterization of a novel method for partial volume simulation in software breast phantoms.

A modification to our previous simulation of breast anatomy is proposed to improve the quality of simulated x-ray projections images. The image quality is affected by the voxel size of the simulation. Large voxels can cause notable spatial quantization artifacts; small voxels extend the generation time and increase the memory requirements.

Automatic classification of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) data of protein biomarker solutions.

We perform multi-class classification of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy data of four commercial samples of proteins diluted in phosphate-buffered saline solution at different concentrations: bovine serum albumin, osteopontin, leptin, and insulin-like growth factor II. We achieve this by using principal component analysis as a method for dimensionality reduction. In addition, we apply several different classification algorithms (K-nearest neighbor, classification and regression trees, neural networks, support vector machines, adaptive local hyperplane, and linear discriminant classifiers) to perform multi-class classification.

Fluorescence spectroscopy of Rhodamine 6G: concentration and solvent effects.

Rhodamine 6G (R6G), also known as Rhodamine 590, is one of the most frequently used dyes for application in dye lasers and as a fluorescence tracer, e.g., in the area of environmental hydraulics.

Optimized generation of high resolution breast anthropomorphic software phantoms.

Purpose: The authors present an efficient method for generating anthropomorphic software breast phantoms with high spatial resolution. Employing the same region growing principles as in their previous algorithm for breast anatomy simulation, the present method has been optimized for computational complexity to allow for fast generation of the large number of phantoms required in virtual clinical trials of breast imaging.

Methods: The new breast anatomy simulation method performs a direct calculation of the Cooper's ligaments (i.

Higher order analytical solutions of water table fluctuations in coastal aquifers.

The groundwater response of coastal aquifers to tidal forcing is described by Laplace's equation coupled with the nonlinear phreatic-free surface boundary condition. Here we describe fluctuations in the water table using two small parameters, extending previous work by proposing an ansatz to compute higher order, semi-analytical solutions. The new solutions are compared with known lower order solutions.

Derivation of a GIS-based watershed-scale conceptual model for the St. Jones River Delaware from habitat-scale conceptual models.

Conceptual modeling is a useful tool for identifying pathways between drivers, stressors, Valued Ecosystem Components (VECs), and services that are central to understanding how an ecosystem operates. The St. Jones River watershed, DE is a complex ecosystem, and because management decisions must include ecological, social, political, and economic considerations, a conceptual model is a good tool for accommodating the full range of inputs.

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.