Nikola Jovic

Remote labs and problem oriented engineering education

This paper describes a study case of student production of laboratory model for engineering education and its integration in the local remote laboratory. Students guided by teaching staff are passing through all phases of development and testing of engineering product. In our case, student should produce and test a fan. This part of case study concerning with courses in Hydraulic and Pneumatic Machinery, which incorporates, besides fundamental courses, subjects related to the theory, construction, design and testing of the hydraulic machines (pumps, fans, turbines) and turbo-compressors. After this, students should produce fan and plate system, which is well-known a laboratory model for Control Engineering education. In this paper, are also described procedures and benefits of integration of a laboratory model in Go-Lab Portal as a remote controlled experimental setup with materials for teaching and learning.

Juvenile Type Granulosa Cell Tumor

Abstract Granulosa cell tumor is a type of neoplasm, which represents 2-5% of all ovarian cancers. About 5% of these tumors are juvenile- type and usually occur to girls before puberty and to women younger than thirty years of age. There are signs premature puberty or premature emergence of secondary sexual characteristics with irregular vaginal bleeding that occur to these kind of patients. To the rare cases, like this, the occurrence of granulosa cell tumors can cause the appearance of hyperandrogenism with high levels of plasma testosterone, leading to virilization which happened to this female patient. We will present the female patient who was 35 years old and which was originally hospitalized to the Clinic for Haematology Clinical Center Kragujevac, because of extreme fatigue accompanied by dizziness. During diagnostics the patient underwent to the complete gynecological examination. After gynecological examinations and necessary diagnostic procedures, it was decided continuing the treatment at the Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinical Center Kragujevac, where she underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo- oophorectomy for suspected uterine neoplasm. Histopathological analysis of the obtained material confirmed the presence of follicular cysts of both ovaries and juvenile type granulosa cell tumor on the right ovary; the uterus was enlarged with multiple fibroid tumors. Granulosa cell tumor should be suspected in the cases of girls and young females if there is present an ovarian cyst paired with signs of preterm puberty or hyperestrogenism. In this case, the presence of granulosa cell tumor was masked by signs of hyperandrogenism, which is not so typical, as well as the presence of uterine fibroids who have actually been the main cause for surgical treatment.

Efficacy of Genital Chlamidiae Trachomatis Treatment in Women of Reproductive Age

Abstract Cervicitis is inflammation of the cervix, and the causes of such inflammation may include infection from certain sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), injury to the cervix from a foreign body inserted into the vagina (for example, birth control devices such as a cervical cap or diaphragm), or cervical cancer, whose course can be subacute or chronic. Our research aimed to test the efficacy of the proposed treatment protocol for chlamydia trachomatis distal genital infections in reproductive women. This single-centre, randomized, quasi-experimental prospective study was conducted among 40 women with diagnosed Chlamydia Trachomatis (CT) cervical infections who were diagnosed and treated at the Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Clinical Center Kragujevac in Serbia from December 2014 to January 2015. Patients were divided into two groups according to the treatment method: the tetracycline group (n=20), with doxiciclyn (Dovicin®) given at a dose of 100 mg twice per day for 10 days and 100 mg per day for the next 10 days, and the macrolides group (n=20), with azithromycin (Hemomycin®) at a dose of 1000 mg per day, divided into four doses or a single dose per day. Treatment with doxycycline proved to be statistically more effective compared to treatment with azithromycin. Our results confirm that the outcome of infections caused by C. trachomatis depends solely on the applied therapy and management, but extensive prospective studies in a female cohort that includes more parameters, such as potential age related, dose-dependent and adherence variability, are necessary to determine and confirm the best choice for treatment of CT cervicitis.

Design of WEB Laboratory for Programming and Use of an FPGA Device

This paper covers a topic on design and implementation of web-based laboratory for programming and use of an FPGA device. This web-based laboratory will be used for remote programming and control of an FPGA device designed for use in the course “Introduction to Design and Control of Integrated Circuits for Communication, Sensors and Actuators” in Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac. Because of limited laboratory resources, both human and technical, needed for teaching programming of an FPGA devices on Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac, a web-based laboratory is a viable solution to the problem This approach was proved successful in the past, namely in the course “Measurement and Control” on the Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac, where 190 students have successfully done four laboratory exercises via web-based laboratory on four experimental setups. Experimental setup is consisted of Digilent Nexys2-FPGA development board connected to the USB port for programming, and Arduino Leonardo development board with Firmata firmware for controlling physical inputs of the FPGA board. Software for this web-based laboratory was written using MEAN stack. Outcomes of this work are full implementation of a web-based laboratory for teaching purposes of programming and control of an FPGA device, with all documentation needed for students to successfully pass a course “Introduction to Design and Control of Integrated Circuits for Communication, Sensors and Actuators” in Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac.

Laboratory Model of Coupled Electrical Drives for Supervision and Control via Internet

Servo drives are used in a wide range of industrial applications including metal cutting, packaging, textiles, web-handling, automated assembly and printing. Servomotors in a typical industrial environment are linked to their end effectuators by transmission mechanisms having a finite stiffness. The elastically coupled two-mass motor/load system introduces finite zeros and the pair of conjugate complex poles in the transfer function of the system plant and, thus, brings up the problem of mechanical resonance. The resonance phenomenon may provoke weakly damped oscillations of the link. Vibration suppression and disturbance rejection in torsional systems are important issue in a high performance motion control. For experimental verification of mentioned phenomena at Faculty of Engineering at University of Kragujevac is developed a laboratory model of coupled electrical drives. The paper describes development and potential use of this laboratory model for engineering education and training. This experimental setup is very expensive according to Serbian standards and unique at Faculty of Engineering. In order to enable wider access to the laboratory model, and exemplary teaching/learning materials concerning with the laboratory model, the laboratory model is integrated in WEB laboratory.

LEGO Web laboratory at University of Kragujevac

This paper describes laboratory infrastructure for LEGO robotics mechanisms controlled via Internet protocol in real time. Description of Web laboratory, existing robotics mechanisms that are in use in Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac, and educational potential of laboratory regardless of the prior programming knowledge are given in this work. Web laboratory is of an open structure, which means that users can realize controllers with an arbitrary structure on the available robotics mechanisms with LEGO sensors and actuators in Python programming language. There is catalogue of digital controller examples solved in Python programming language on the web pages of the WEB Laboratory, as well as subroutines for use of LEGO sensors and actuators via Python programming language. Enhancing LEGO sets by the means of 3D printing is also described in this work. Laboratory software is written with MEAN stack and Python programming language.

Characteristics of Pregnancy, Delivery and The Postpartum Period in Pregnant Women Diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract Gestational diabetes mellitus refers to both transient diabetes that arises during pregnancy and is restored postpartum as well as forms of the disease that arise for the first time during pregnancy and persistently exhibit insulin-dependence (type 1) after childbirth. The basis for the development of gestational diabetes is the existence of insulin resistance. Our target population was pregnant women between 20 and 46 years of age who were diagnosed with gestational diabetes (after the 24th week of pregnancy) and who were treated at the Department of Pathology of Pregnancy, Clinical Centre Kragujevac. During the research period, data were collected from 95 pregnant women with diagnosed gestational diabetes. In 3 women, the pregnancy ended in intrauterine foetal demise, and the study was continued with 92 subjects. This is a cross-sectional, retrospective and observational study. The average age of the examinees in our sample is 31.6 years. A total of 77.89% of the examinees achieved normoglycaemia exclusively via a hygienic dietary regimen. However, 27.2% of the subjects exhibited comorbidities in addition to gestational diabetes, which further complicated the pregnancy. A total of 70.7% examinees delivered between the 37th and 40th week of gestation. Vaginal delivery was dominant, with episiotomy in almost half the cases. The average body weight of newborns from pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes was 3587.07 grams, which is very close to the macrosomia limit of 4000 grams. The timely detection of gestational diabetes and an adequate treatment of pregnant women can prevent the occurrence of foetal macrosomia as the primary complication of these pregnancies. Pregnancy complicated by gestational diabetes is not necessarily an indication for a Caesarean section.

Building Remote Lab for Robot SLAM Algorithm Testing

This paper describes the development of a remote laboratory at the University of Kragujevac, with examples on testing robot SLAM algorithms. The laboratory is built with the scope of engineering education, but it can be also used by scientist and developers for quick testing of SLAM, maze solving or similar algorithms on real robots. The main goal is to build a remote lab whose price is as low as possible, while still having the necessary functionality, allowing users to access it at any time, and to be sustainable and maintainable for a long period of time.

Unnecessary Hysterectomy due to Menorrhagia and Disorders of Hemostasis: An Example of Overuse and Excessive Demand for Medical Services

Excessive menstrual bleeding—menorrhagia is a common gynecologic disorder affecting women of reproductive age. Subjectively, menorrhagia is defined as a complaint of heavy cyclical menstrual bleeding occurring over several consecutive cycles (Rönnerdag and Odlind, 1999). Objectively, it can be defined as heavy menstrual bleeding lasting for more than 7 days or resulting in the loss of more than 80 mL per menstrual cycle (ACOG Committee on Practice Bulletins—Gynecology, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2001). An objective evaluation of the existence of menorrhagia is not simple. Alkaline hematin technique is completely objective measure (extracting hemoglobin from sanitary wear to assess blood loss), but it is impractical out of controlled research settings. Widely used alternative is the pictorial blood loss assessment chart (PBAC) and this is semiobjective method takes into account the number and the degree of staining of items of sanitary wear used. PBAC is easier to perform than the alkaline hematin technique, yet yields more objective results than self-reporting (Warner et al., 2004). Data from literature suggested that approximately 10% of reproductive-aged women had objective evidence of menorrhagia, but studies based on self-reported information suggested that approximately 30% of women of reproductive age were afflicted with heavy menstrual bleeding (Dilley et al., 2002; Shapley et al., 2004). According to our research, out of 115 women who self-report these excessive menstrual bleeding only 55% had actually verified menorrhagia by PBAC (Djukic et al., 2013). Menorrhagia can happen due to anatomic (uterine fibroids, endometrial polyps, endometrial hyperplasia, and pregnancy), endocrinologic (thyroid and adrenal gland dysfunction, pituitary tumors, anovulatory cycles, polycystic ovarial syndrome, obesity, and vasculature imbalance), iatrogenic (steroid hormones, chemotherapy agents, medications) and organic (organ dysfunction infection, bleeding disorders) abnormality (Vilos et al., 2001; Albers et al., 2004).