Health risk assessment of heavy metals in PM2.5 and PM10 in Sarajevo air, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The concentrations of eight heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) associated with PM2.5 and PM10 in Sarajevo air, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have been studied. A total of 136 PM2.5 and PM10 samples were simultaneously collected from 21 February to 11 November 2020. Metal contents were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry, flame (FAAS) and electrothermal (ETAAS) techniques. The mean concentrations of metals in PM10 are 2.93 ng/m3 (Cd), 7.21 ng/m3 (Cr), 12.02 ng/m3 (Cu), 126 ng/m3 (Fe), 20.74 ng/m3 (Mn), 6.98 ng/m3 (Ni), 8.74 ng/m3 (Pb) and 128 ng/m3 (Zn). In PM2.5 samples the mean concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Zn are 0.39, 4.06, 2.26, 110, 0.63, 1.93 and 5.28 ng/m3, respectively. Pb was not detected in PM2.5 samples. Strong correlation was obtained for metal pairs Mn-Cu in PM10 and moderate for Ni-Fe in PM2.5. The health risk assessment shows that the adult population of Sarajevo is at increased lifetime risk of experiencing cancer because of exposure to Cd concentrations in PM10.

Correlation analysis of different optical remote sensing indices for drought monitoring: a case study of Canton Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Droughts are second to hurricanes the world's most costly weather events. Damage caused by droughts in certain countries is measured in tens of billions of dollars per year. Timely detection of drought and prediction of its occurrence has the potential to reduce costs and save a large number of people from its consequences. Numerous methods that serve this purpose exist in scientific research and practice. One group of drought monitoring methods belongs to the field of remote sensing, where it is possible to monitor drought indicators over large areas in almost real-time through satellite images. This paper is focused on the optical indices of remote sensing calculated by raster algebra. The intention was to reach conclusions about the quality of individual indices used for the Canton Sarajevo area in Bosnia and Herzegovina for each month of August in the period 2008-2021 through correlational and qualitative analysis and the use of meteorological indicators. Among the used indices, NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) and NMI (normalized moisture index) proved to be the most reliable, and their mutual correlation was very strong (r = 0.99).

New Insight into the Measurements of Particle-Bound Metals in the Urban and Remote Atmospheres of the Sarajevo Canton and Modeled Impacts of Particulate Air Pollution in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Sarajevo Canton Winter Field Campaign 2018 (SAFICA) was a project that took place in winter 2017-2018 with an aim to characterize the chemical composition of aerosol in the Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which has one of the worst air qualities in Europe. This paper presents the first characterization of the metals in PM10 (particulate matter aerodynamic diameters ≤10 µm) from continuous filter samples collected during an extended two-months winter period at the urban background Sarajevo and remote Ivan Sedlo sites. We report the results of 18 metals detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The average mass concentrations of metals were higher at the Sarajevo site than at Ivan Sedlo and ranged from 0.050 ng/m3 (Co) to 188 ng/m3 (Fe) and from 0.021 ng/m3 (Co) to 61.8 ng/m3 (Fe), respectively. The BenMAP-CE model was used for estimating the annual BiH health (50% decrease in PM2.5 would save 4760+ lives) and economic benefits (costs of $2.29B) of improving the air quality. Additionally, the integrated energy and health assessment with the ExternE model provided an initial estimate of the additional health cost of BiH's energy system.

Medical Biography of Isak Samokovlija: The Famous Bosnian-Herzegovinian Writer.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the biographical, professional, and health-educational works of Dr. Isak Samakovlija, who was better known as a writer than a doctor in the country where he was born. He was born in 1889 in Gorazde, the easternmost province in the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, into a modest Jewish merchant family. He attended high school in Sarajevo and completed his studies in medicine in Vienna in 1917. During the First World War, he served twice in the Austro- Hungarian army. After the end of the First World War in 1918, he completed a medical internship at the National Hospital in Sarajevo. He began his service as a doctor, first in Gorazde and then in Fojnica and Sarajevo. After the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia in May 1941, he was dismissed from his duties in the service without the right to pension or support, and without the right to appeal. In the Independent State of Croatia, he was twice mobilized into the Home Guard and was manager of the clinic in the Alipasin Most refugee camp. After World War II, he was the head of the Health Education Department of the Ministry of Public Health of the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. Together with a group of enthusiastic doctors, he founded and edited the first Bosnian medical journal Zivot i Zdravlje (Life and Health). In that journal, Dr. Samokovlija published 29 articles of health and educational content. In 1949, Dr. Samokovlija left the Ministry of Public Health and continued to edit the literature and art journal Brazda, but he still had a private practice until the end of his life. He died in Sarajevo on January 15, 1955. He was buried with the highest state honors at the Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo. CONCLUSION: Isak Samakovlija (1889-1955) was one of the first medical doctors born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He made a significant contribution to the improvement of people's health after the First and Second World Wars in the places where he worked. His special contribution are his articles on health education.

An International Comparative Study on the Resilience of Urban Communities after COVID-19 Pandemic: A One-Year Case Study between Lanzhou, China and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After the prevailing of the COVID-19 pandemic, urban communities around the world took initiatives to bring their cities back to life. In this research, 45 indicators and 55 elements were selected to make comparisons between urban communities in Lanzhou, China and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina from five dimensions of social resilience, economic resilience, institutional resilience, infrastructural resilience, and community capital resilience. At the same time, the ArcGIS platform tool was used for spatial interpolation analysis. In this paper, the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method was used to carry out the spatial analysis of the perceived resilience of the two cities. Due to the heterogeneity of the neighborhood physical environment, operation and management mode, individual attribute characteristics, and internal relations, the resilience of the two urban communities showed disparity in different dimensions. Overall, the communities with good urban property management services, high-income owners, and the convenient transportation have stronger resilience in the face of pandemic. On the contrary, scattered communities, which are scattered in the inner cities, lack effective management, and based on unstable employment, people become the most affected by the epidemic with the lowest resilience power. The importance of social capital, represented by community understanding, identity, and mutual help and cooperation between neighbors, is highlighted in the resilience assessment of the two cities, respectively, in the East and West, indicating that to build more resilient cities, in addition to improving government management and increasing investment in urban infrastructure, building the residents' sense of belonging, identity, and enduring community culture is even more important in the construction of resilient cities.

Rosalie Sattler-Feuerstein: An Austro-Hungarian Official Female Physician in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1914-1919.

This short biography traces the life and medical activities of Rosalie Sattler, née Feuerstein (1883-19??), who was employed as an official female physician at the Austro-Hungarian (AH) provincial public health department in Sarajevo from 1914-1919. Born in 1883 into a Jewish middle-class family in Chernivtsi (then Czernowitz), Ukraine, in Bukovina, the easternmost province in Austria, Feuerstein moved to Vienna in 1904 to study medicine. After earning her MD from Vienna University in 1909, she started her career as an assistant physician at the Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital in Vienna. In spring 1912, Feuerstein moved to Sarajevo to work as an intern at the local provincial hospital (Landeskrankenhaus). In the same year, she married AH district physician Moritz Sattler (1873-1927) in Vienna. In 1914, Sattler-Feuerstein successfully applied to be an AH official female physician in Bosnia. She was an employee of the provincial public health department in Sarajevo and never functioned as an official female physician in the sense of the relevant AH service ordinance. After the collapse of the monarchy, Sattler-Feuerstein continued to be employed as an official female physician of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. She resigned from service in 1919 and established herself as a private general practitioner in Sarajevo with her husband, who had also resigned as an official physician and started to practice privately at that point. Widowed in 1927, she left Sarajevo for an unknown destination, likely in 1938-1939, and vanished from historical records. CONCLUSION: Rosalie Sattler-Feuerstein (1883-19??) came to Bosnia as the eighth AH official female physician and worked as an employee of the AH provincial public health department in Sarajevo from 1914-1919, after which she practiced as a private physician in Sarajevo for more than 25 years.

Foreknowledge of the Fourth Semester Students about Medical Informatics at the Medical Faculty University of Sarajevo.

INTRODUCTION: High educational and teaching standards were the main reason why from the begging student satisfaction surveys and assessments of the students' knowledge, attitudes and opinions were paramount in the educational process at the Cathedra for Medical Informatics at the Medical Faculty University of Sarajevo. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate general knowledge of the fourth semester students about informatics and medical informatics and compare it with previous generations. METHODS: Students at the beginning of the fourth semester and before second planned lectures receive "Questionnaire for biomedical students about use and knowledge of information technologies". Collected data was retrospectively used for this study. The scientific study committee of the Cathedra for Medical Informatics reviewed and approved the database for using this study. At the beginning of the survey, all students were informed that their data could be tracked. Also, all students were informed and got lectures on surveys, development and use of questionnaires for the examination of the patient/student satisfactions and how results of the survey and analysis could help continuously improving quality of the teaching process. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Medical students come to the faculty with significant IT knowledge and skills. It can even be argued that students rank their knowledge in some way lower than we as teachers estimate based on their practical work. They organize groups on social networks where they exchange information about lectures and exams. It is common for each study year to have its own group. Through this group, information and presentations that teachers send to students are exchanged. One of the goals of teaching medical informatics is the method of searching for medical information on the Internet. The skills learned in medical informatics classes complement those learned earlier and provide a solid base for physicians who are able to supplement their knowledge using IT technologies when they need it.

Teodora Krajewska, Official Female Doctor of Tuzla and Sarajevo: Medical Practitioner, Woman of Science, Polish Patriot and Feminist.

A biographical note on Teodora Krajewska (1854-1935) reveals the details of her life and professional activities as an Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslav health officer (Amtsärztin) in Tuzla (1893-1899) and in Sarajevo (1899-1923). Teodora Krajewska, née Kosmowska was the third of nine official female doctors employed by the Austro-Hungarian administration in occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH: 1878-1918) and charged with the special task of popularising public health and hygiene, particularly among Muslim women. A Polish intellectual and fervent patriot from Warsaw, Krajewska had left Congress Poland as a young widow in 1883 to study medicine in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1890, she became the first woman in Europe to be employed as an assistant professor at the medical faculty of the University of Geneva but was forced to resign in 1892. In the same year, she was both awarded her doctorate and appointed to the position of an Austro-Hungarian female health officer in Tuzla. After being nationalised in Austria, she reported for duty in Tuzla in March 1893. In 1899, she accepted her transfer to a newly created position in Sarajevo where she was active as an official physician until 1922/23. She contributed to contemporary medical science through her research on leprosy and osteomalacia in Bosnia. She returned to Warsaw in 1928 and devoted herself to the translation of Serbo-Croatian literature and writing her memoirs on her life and activities in BH.

On Occasion of Ten Years Anniversary of Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2009-2019.

This year Academy of medical sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AMNuBiH) celebrates Anniversary - ten years from founding in the year 2009. Goals of founding of AMNuBiH were: a) promotion of medical sciences, b) improvement of all biomedical disciplines, and c) affirmation of contribution of biomedical sciences in the development of sciences in Bosnia and Herzegovina generally and especially in medicine in the country and abroad. AMNuBiH activities are: organization of scientific and professional meetings and publishing their results of research and investigations which promote B&H medical sciences and improve the health care system of B&H. Also, publishing of AMNuBiH indexed journals: Medicinski arhiv (Medical Archives), Materia Socio-Medica and Acta Informatica Medica, and cooperation with institutions in the country and abroad which goals and activities are the same or similar as AMNuBiH activities. Currently. Academy has 33 members. Facts about AMNuBiH activities during past 10 years are described in the book "Ten years of Anniversary of AMNuBiH: 2009-2019) and deposited on official web site of Academy: www.amn.ba.

Dr. Anna Bayerová: The First Official Female Doctor in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This biographical note details Anna Bayerová's (1853-1924) activities as the first female Austro-Hungarian health officer in 1878 to1918 occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). Anna Bayerová is known as a heroine of Czech feminism and the 'first Czech female physician', though she only practised in the Czech lands from 1913 to 1916. In 1891, Bayerová was enrolled as the first Austro-Hungarian female health officer and assigned to treat Muslim women in the district of Tuzla, Bosnia. She pursued this mission for the first three months of 1892, had herself transferred to Sarajevo in the summer, and soon thereafter quitted the service. Her biographers point to a series of political and personal motivations to abandon her mission in Bosnia, which, from the viewpoint of Czech feminists, included fulfilling her professional duties in an exemplary way. She spent most of her professional life as a physician in Switzerland and did not request Austrian recognition of her medical degree until 1913. Bayerová died in Prague in 1924. Conclusion. Bayerová, partly for political reasons and partly due to her panic-fuelled fear of catching tuberculosis, quitted her role as the first Austro-Hungarian female health officer in BH soon after her arrival in 1892.

Making Use of H-index: the Shape of Science at the University of Sarajevo.

INTRODUCTION: Quantifying science and scientific contribution has become one of the main tasks in evaluating researchers and their impact. How do we value research and science in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH)? Scientific community has mostly agreed upon that one of the best ways to value researchers is through their h-index value. However, there are many databases and services from which h-index can be retrieved. AIM: To describe different databases and services such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus and Researchgate in evaluating the researcher. An additional aim of this paper is to present "the shape" of science at the University of Sarajevo and to examine what are the best predictors of h-index. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the data from 100 Google Scholar Profiles of researchers from University of Sarajevo. RESULTS: The study showed some benefits and shortcomings of mentioned databases and services. Most researchers in the sample were from natural sciences, in particular from the field of medicine. The mean value of h-index in relation to the researcher's gender was not statistically significant. We conclude the article with some ideas on how to improve the visibility of researchers from BIH.

ASSESSMENT OF RISK FACTORS FOR DIABETES MELLITUS TYPE 2.

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia, and represents a disease of the modern age, disease of the 21st century. Prevention of this disease is listed as imperative. Aim of this article was to evaluate questionnaires on the assessment of risk factors for Diabetes Mellitus type 2. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 540 questionnaires handed out randomly to citizens of Canton Sarajevo of all ages, sexes and educational levels (in January 2016) were analyzed. RESULTS: Analyzed questionnaires showed relatively low risk of getting diabetes in the next ten years in the majority of the population. These results are rather encouraging but may in some way be in confrontation with the statistics which show a rapid outburst of diabetes. CONCLUSION: The life-style is the main reason for such a thing to happen, and looking at these questionnaires, we might get the feeling that we really do live in a, conditionally speaking, physically active society. That, from our everyday experience is not entirely true. It would be wise to continue doing research on this topic on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Information technology - a tool for development of the teaching process at the faculty of medicine, university of sarajevo.

INTRODUCTION: Information Technologies, taking slow steps, have found its application in the teaching process of Faculty of Medicine, University of Sarajevo. Online availability of the teaching content is mainly intended for users of the Bologna process. AIM: The aim was to present the level of use of information technologies at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sarajevo, comparing two systems, old system and the Bologna process, and to present new ways of improving the teaching process, using information technology. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included the period from 2012 to 2014, and included 365 students from the old system and the Bologna Process. Study had prospective character. RESULTS: Students of the old system are older than students of the Bologna process. In both systems higher number of female students is significantly present. All students have their own computers, usually using the Office software package and web browsers. Visits of social networks were the most common reason for which they used computers. On question if they know to work with databases, 14.6% of students of the old system responded positively and 26.2% of students of the Bologna process answered the same. Students feel that working with databases is necessary to work in primary health care. On the question of the degree of computerization at the university, there were significant differences between the two systems (p <0.05). When asked about the possibility of using computers at school, there were no significant differences between the two systems. There has been progress of that opportunity from year to year. Students of Bologna process were more interested in the introduction of information technology, than students of old system. 68.7% of students of the Bologna process of generation 2013-2014, and 71.3% of generation 2014-2015, believed that the subject of Medical Informatics, the same or similar name, should be included in the new reform teaching process of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sarajevo. CONCLUSION: Information technologies can help the development of the teaching process, and represent attractive and accessible tool in the process of modernization and progress.

Efficiency of implementation of the bologna process at medical faculty, university of sarajevo.

INTRODUCTION: At the moment at Medical Faculty, University of Sarajevo, simultaneously exist two systems of teaching process, the old (pre-Bologna) and Bologna process. GOAL: To show efficiency and justification of use of Bologna process at Medical Faculty, University of Sarajevo, through the prism of actual beneficiaries of this process, students, assessment of quality of medical education, and comparison of results of the teaching process evaluation between students studying according to the Bologna process and the old system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included period from 2012 to 2014, and had prospective character. Students of final (sixth) year were included, the last three generations of pre-Bologna, and three generations of the Bologna process, which completed their studies successfully. The study included 365 students (177 under the old system and 188 under the Bologna process), who had answered prepared questionnaire. RESULTS: The presence of large number of female students, in both systems is significant. There were significant differences in opinion of students regarding the quality of space for administration and labor administration, informatization of the teaching process, the opinion of the objectivity of teachers in the assessment of the examination, and on-line access to their content. (p <0.05). DISCUSSION: The Bologna process, with all its guidelines, was never to the maximum implemented in the teaching faculties, mostly because of the lack of funds and infrastructure that couldn't fully comply with all the privileges of the Bologna process. CONCLUSION: Bologna process on this principle, has brought mediocrity, of which we have tried to escape. New school year, brings, and the new Bologna process, a new curriculum, a large number of new classes, systematization of the material, with simultaneous correction necessary in one hand in teaching, and in other hand in students themselves.

Suicide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the city of Sarajevo.

BACKGROUND: Besides the war experience (1992-1995), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) constitutes an interesting area for studies on suicidal behavior from an ethnic and religious perspective with its mixed ethnic population of Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats. AIMS: The study investigates suicide in BiH and the capital city of Sarajevo before (1985-1991) and after the war (1998-2006), with special reference to gender and ethnicity. METHOD: Official suicide data were gathered for the two periods with regard to gender, ethnicity, and suicide methods used. RESULTS: No differences in suicide rates were found in BiH and Sarajevo before and after the war. The male-to-female suicide rate ratio in BiH was significantly higher after the war than before the war, with an opposite tendency seen in Sarajevo. Before and after the war, the highest and stable suicide rates were among Serbs in BiH. In Sarajevo the highest suicide rates were found among Croats after the war. Hanging was the most common suicide method used, both before and after the war, while firearms were more commonly used after the war. Poisoning was a rarely used method in both periods. CONCLUSION: The stable suicide rates in BiH over the pre- and postwar periods indicate no evident influence of the Bosnian war on the postwar level of suicide rates, except for women in Sarajevo. Beside this exception, the findings indicate a long-established underlying pattern in suicide rates that was not immediately changed, even by war. The study supports earlier findings that the accessibility of means influences the choice of suicide method used.

Information technologies in education of medical students at the university of sarajevo.

INTRODUCTION: Information and communication technology have brought about many changes in medical education and practice, especially in the field of diagnostics. During the academic year 2013/2014, at Faculty of Medicine, University of Sarajevo, students in the final year of the study were subjected to examination which aim was to determine how medical students in Bosnia and Herzegovina subjectively assessing their skills for using computers, have gained insight into the nature of Information Technology's (IT) education and possessive knowledge. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The survey was conducted voluntary by anonymous questionnaire consisting of 27 questions, divided into five categories, which are collecting facts about student's: sex, age, year of entry, computer skills, possessing the same, the use of the Internet, the method of obtaining currently knowledge and recommendations of students in order to improve their IT training. RESULTS OF THE STUDY: According to the given parameters, indicate an obvious difference in the level of knowledge, use and practical application of Information Technology's knowledge among students of the Bologna process to the students educated under the old system in favor of the first ones. Based on a comparison of similar studies conducted in Croatia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Denmark, it was observed that the level of knowledge of students of the Medical Faculty in Sarajevo was of equal height or greater than in these countries.