Vaccine regulations in Croatia

In this paper legal prerequisites for vaccine licensure in Croatia are discussed. The Croatian legislation concerning vaccine licensing, marketing authorisation and utilization is reviewed. The procedures for including a vaccine into the Mandatory Childhood Vaccination Programme are also discussed with focus on Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. Non-obligatory vaccination recommendations are given when according to professional opinion; vaccination is beneficial for the vaccinee. There is little doubt that HPV vaccines should be recommended for preadolescent girls in Croatia. However, reaching a decision on its possible introduction into the Childhood Vaccination Programme will require careful consideration of the larger picture and a comparison of the cost-effectiveness of a mandatory vaccination against other competing public health priorities.     

Anion–π interactions in complexes of proteins and halogen-containing amino acids

We analyzed the potential influence of anion–π interactions on the stability of complexes of proteins and halogen-containing non-natural amino acids. Anion–π interactions are distance and orientation dependent and our ab initio calculations showed that their energy can be lower than ?8 kcal mol^?1, while most of their interaction energies lie in the range from ?1 to ?4 kcal mol^?1. About 20 % of these interactions were found to be repulsive. We have observed that Tyr has the highest occurrence among the aromatic residues involved in anion–π interactions, while His made the least contribution. Furthermore, our study showed that 67 % of total interactions in the dataset are multiple anion–π interactions. Most of the amino acid residues involved in anion–π interactions tend to be buried in the solvent-excluded environment. The majority of the anion–π interacting residues are located in regions with helical secondary structure. Analysis of stabilization centers for these complexes showed that all of the six residues capable of anion–π interactions are important in locating one or more of such centers. We found that anion–π interacting residues are sometimes involved in simultaneous interactions with halogens as well. With all that in mind, we can conclude that the anion–π interactions can show significant influence on molecular organization and on the structural stability of the complexes of proteins and halogen-containing non-natural amino acids. Their influence should not be neglected in supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering fields as well.     

A new species of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pseudomaseus</Emphasis> (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Pterostichini) from Greece

A new species of carabid beetles, Pterostichus hejkali sp. n. is described from Northwest Greece (type locality: Epirus District, Ioannina Prefecture, Ioannina Lake environs). Diagnostic characters include distinctive shape of the median lobe of aedeagus, of right paramere and of sexual modification on last visible sternum in males as well as shape of pronotum and size of body. Members of the new species are most similar to P. minor. A key to the identification of the Balkan taxa of Pseudomaseus is presented.     

Synthesis and Analgesic Activity of New Analogues of Tyr-MIF Including Pyrrole Moiety

Pain is one of many medical problems of modern society. Together with a number of other diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, tumors, etc. it ranks among the first in manifestation. There are a huge number of medical drugs more or less effective against pain in a practice. Globally, the searching of new molecules with analgesic activity and better selectivity or greater effect at lower doses continues. In addition, some groups trying to improve the properties of known molecules in medical practice as various heterocyclic compounds by modifying one or another of their part. Other groups work on the creation of new mimetics of natural molecules with well established physiological activity. In this global context, here we report the synthesis of two new compounds which are hybrid molecules between the specifically substituted pyrrole (Pyr) and analogues of Tyr-MIF-1 peptide. All investigations on the analgesic activity show better activity at the same dose than natural Tyr-MIF-1 peptide for the analogue Pyr-Tyr-Phe-Leu-Ala-OH. Compound Pyr-Ala-Leu-Phe-Tyr-OH has no better effect comparable to that of the parent peptide. The obtained results clearly show that it is essential that Tyr residue occupies N-terminal position of MIF-1 analogue. The lack of better activity of the analogue Pyr-Ala-Leu-Phe-Tyr-OH reveals that Pyr residue does not influence on the analgesic activity. In addition we found that C-terminal amide function generally presented in natural MIF-1 is not absolutely necessary for activity.     

Population structure in a wheat core collection and genomic loci associated with yield under contrasting environments

A set of 96 winter wheat accessions sampled from a variety of geographic origins, including cultivars and breeding lines, were characterized with 46 genome-wide SSR loci for genetic diversity and population structure. The genetic diversity within these accessions was examined using a genetic distance-based and a model-based clustering method. The model-based analysis identified an underlying population structure comprising of four distinct sub-populations which corresponded well with distance-based groupings. Information on the population structure is taken into account in an association mapping study of grain yield from a 3-years field trial incorporating fully irrigated, rainfed and drought stress treatments. A total of 21 marker-grain yield associations (P?<?0.01) were identified with nine SSR markers. Most associations were detected only in one to three environments (treatment/year combination), with an average R ² value around 13?%. However, marker gwm484 (on chromosome 2D) was associated with yield in six environments, including irrigated, rainfed and drought stress treatments, suggesting it could be used to improve grain yield across a range of environments. Variation in grain yield at this locus was associated with earliness, early vigour, kernels per spikelet and harvest index. Microsatellite locus psp3200 (on chromosome 6D) was associated with yield in dry and hot environments, which was related to earliness, early vigour, productive tillering and total biomass per plant. Partial least squares regression, with nine environmental factors, showed that precipitation from tillering to maturity was the main environmental factor causing marker?×?environment associations for grain yield.     

The Amaryllidaceae alkaloids: an untapped source of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

Phytochemistry Reviews - The AChE inhibitory activity of alkaloid extracts and compounds has been in the focus of research on the plants of Amaryllidoideae subfamily since the approval of...     

Hierarchical analysis of habitat use by 0+ juvenile fish in Hungarian/Slovak flood plain of the Danube River

Synopsis To address the lack of information on the distribution and habitat use of 0+ juvenile fishes in the Hungarian/Slovak flood plain of the middle Danube River, we undertook the first cross-border ichthyological investigation, examining three levels of ecological perception (hydrosystem, macrohabitat, microhabitat) during August 1992 using ‘Point Abundance Sampling’ by electrofishing. Being that the Gabćófcovo hydroscheme was about to begin diverting most of the river's discharge away from the flood plain during the winter of 1992, the present investigation represented the last chance to record the distribution and microhabitat use of 0+ fishes within the flood plain. At each sampling point, numerous environmental variables were measured quantitatively, or as percentages. At the hydrosystem level, 25 species of 0+ fishes were captured in the 1170 point samples collected from 52 sites (27 in Hungary, 25 in Slovakia), ranging from 10 to over 200 mm standard length (i.e. pikeEsox lucius). No significant differences were found between the Hungarian and Slovak specimens with respect to standard length (ANOVA, p> 0.31), nor in the relative densities (ind.m⁻²) of 0+ fish (Student's t-test: df 24, t = 0.601, p = 0.553). A typology of macrohabitats using principal components analysis of the sites X species data matrix in absence/presence revealed three groupings of sites: (1) lotic channels, weirs and wing-dams; (2) partially-abandoned channels; (3) abandoned channels; the results corroborated our assumption that weirs of the anabranch systems represent a quasi-lotic refuge for rheophilous 0+ fishes of the flood plain during late summer. At the microhabitat level, an empirical model of microhabitat use was generated using canonical correspondence analysis and association analysis (based on chi-square probabilities). Water velocity was the most influential variable, with the O+ juveniles ordinated along the first canonical axis according to their increasing rheophily. The second most influential microhabitat variable was water transparency, followed by the percentage abundance of macrophytes and substrate composition.