Impact of adolescents awareness on perception of sexually transmitted infections.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are diseases transmitted by direct contact during sexual intercourse. Because of high incidence and possibility of development severe consequences on general and reproductive health, STIs are a major problem among young people in the world. Lack of information is one of the major risk factors for STI transmission. Most of young people (53.3%) had their first sexual intercourse at the age of 18 years, 67.7% of students have no knowledge about STI, 53.3% of students have already entered into sexual relations and 13% of them with more than 4partners. 31.1% of students who are sexually active was not examined by a gynecologist because of shame and fear. Most sexually active adolescents did not use contraceptives and they are not satisfied with the available information about STI. There is also continuing problem of teen pregnancy. The main goal of this research is to examine whether there is relationship between level of information and awareness of surveyed adolescents and their perception of sexually transmitted diseases.

Epigenetic drug 5-azacytidine impairs proliferation of rat limb buds in an organotypic model-system in vitro.

AIM: To establish an organotypic in vitro model of limb bud development to verify whether epigenetic drug and teratogen 5-azacytidine (5azaC) has an effect on limb buds independent of its effects on the placenta. METHODS: Fischer strain rat fore- and hindlimb buds were microsurgically isolated from 13 days old embryos and cultivated in vitro for two weeks at the air-liquid interface in Eagle's minimum essential medium (MEM) with 50% rat serum. 30 µmol of 5azaC was added to the fresh medium. Overall growth was measured by an ocular micrometer. Routine histology, immunohistochemical detection of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and stereological quantification of PCNA expression were performed. RESULTS: At four time points, significantly lower overall growth was detected for fore- and hindlimb bud explants cultivated with 5azaC in comparison to controls. After the culture period, numerical density of the PCNA signal for both types of limb buds was lower than for controls (P<0.001). Limb buds were initially covered by immature epithelium and contained mesenchyme, myotubes, single hemangioblasts, hemangioblast aggregates, blood islands, and capillaries. Regardless of the treatment, cartilage and epidermis differentiated, but cells and structures typical for vasculogenesis disappeared. CONCLUSION: Our findings, obtained outside of the maternal organism, stress the importance of compromised cell proliferation for 5azaC impact on limb buds. This investigation points to the necessity to establish alternatives to in vivo research on animals using teratogenic agents.

Analysis of senior population visits to physical medicine in Croatia.

The aim of the study was to analyze the senior population when deciding to choose either going to the private or public physical medicine practice in Croatia. 240 patients (public and private group, 120 participants each) from the Croatian medium large county Primorje-Gorski kotar, were enrolled from 6 physical medicine practices (3 public and 3 private). Between December 1st 2009 and January 31st 2010, in the public and private practices seniors aged 65 to 85 years were 64.17%, 52.40% respectively, of all interviewed participants in single group. The results showed that in Croatia majority of seniors visiting the physical medicine were females in revisit and dependents of government health insurance. Study suggested the great influence of general practitioner, closeness to home and time of the appointment for patients going to public physical medicine, while in private peers and sooner appointment outweigh. In either practice seniors were satisfied with the overall quality of health services and graded the best average-higher in favor for the private. Elderly Croatian residents showed to be the important feature in physical medicine and rehabilitation and to participate actively in their health issues. Following those results, we will perform the study in the rest of the country and compare it to this data. That could enable the specific improvement for the health care of seniors in Croatia.

Personal identification by eyes.

Identification of persons through the eyes is in the field of biometrical science. Many security systems are based on biometric methods of personal identification, to determine whether a person is presenting itself truly. The human eye contains an extremely large number of individual characteristics that make it particularly suitable for the process of identifying a person. Today, the eye is considered to be one of the most reliable body parts for human identification. Systems using iris recognition are among the most secure biometric systems.