University of Maribor

About: University of Maribor is a education organization based out in Maribor, Slovenia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & KEKB. The organization has 3987 authors who have published 13077 publications receiving 258339 citations. The organization is also known as: Univerza v Mariboru.

Domestic violence and abuse in intimate relationship from public health perspective

Abstract: In this article we pay attention to the vio- lence which, due to the fear of social stigma, could be hidden from the public eye for a long time but could have serious health consequences for the individual, family, and society – physical and psychological forms of domestic violence and abuse in male-female intimate relationship. Besides its nature and extent data in general population, we review also the surveys data about its theoretical basis, its risk factors and possible effects on mental and physical health, not only on in conflicts involved partners, but also on family as a whole, and especially on the children that growing up in such a problematic domestic circumstances.

Systems theory: a worldview and/or a methodology aimed at requisite holism/realism of humans' thinking, decisions and action

Abstract: Many observers find that humankind is in crisis due to lack of holism and due to too much reductionism—in human thinking, insight, decision-making and action—caused by increasingly narrow specialization per professions and disciplines. Systems theory surfaced good five decades ago to fight this problem. But it keeps losing its battle, including in its own arena. Specialization is unavoidable, but it is frequently not enough. Good three decades of experience of this contribution's author have demonstrated that his concept of the ‘dialectical system’ and ‘law of requisite holism/realism’ can offer a response. It shows a way towards holism/realism as an overarching worldview, which is capable of providing room for many systems theories and specialized/traditional theories to work together, because they are interdependent, that is, needing each other. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comorbidities and characteristics of coronary heart disease patients: their impact on health-related quality of life.

Abstract: Patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) commonly present with more than one comorbid condition, contributing to poorer health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of our study was to identify the associations between HRQoL and patient characteristics, vascular comorbidities and anxiety/depression disorders. This observational study was conducted in 36 family medicine practices selected by random stratified sampling from all regions of Slovenia. HRQoL was assessed using the European Quality of Life - 5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) questionnaire and EQ Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS). The associations between HRQoL and patient characteristics stratified by demographics, vascular comorbidities, health services used, their assessment of chronic illness care, and anxiety/depression disorders were identified by ordinal logistic regression and linear regression models. The final sample included 423 CHD patients with a mean age of 68.0 ± SD 10.8 years; 35.2% were female. Mean EQ-VAS score was 58.6 ± SD 19.9 (median: 60 with interquartile range of 45–75), and mean EQ-5D index was 0.60 ± SD 0.19 (median: 0.56 with interquartile range of 0.41–0.76). The statistically significant predictors of a lower EQ-VAS score were higher family physician visit frequency, heart failure (HF) and anxiety/depression disorders ( R² 0.240; F = 17.368 ; p < 0.001). The statistically significant predictor of better HRQoL, according to EQ-5D was higher patient education, whereas higher family physician visit frequency, HF and peripheral artery disease (PAD) were predictors of poorer HRQoL (Nagelkerke R 2 = 0.298; χ 2 = 148.151; p < 0.001). Results of our study reveal that comorbid conditions (HF and PAD), family physician visit frequency and years in education are significant predictors of HRQoL in Slovenian CHD patients.

Non-invasive characterization of motor unit behaviour in pathological tremor.

Abstract: This paper presents the fully automatic identification of motor unit spike trains from high-density surface electromyograms (EMG) in pathological tremor. First, a mathematical derivation is provided to theoretically prove the possibility of decomposing noise-free high-density surface EMG signals into motor unit spike trains with high correlation, which are typical of tremor contractions. Further, the proposed decomposition method is tested on simulated signals with different levels of noise and on experimental signals from 14 tremor-affected patients. In the case of simulated tremor with central frequency ranging from 5 Hz to 11 Hz and signal-to-noise ratio of 20 dB, the method identified ∼8 motor units per contraction with sensitivity in spike timing identification ≥95% and false alarm and miss rates ≤5%. In experimental signals, the number of identified motor units varied substantially (range 0–21) across patients and contraction types, as expected. The behaviour of the identified motor units was consistent with previous data obtained by intramuscular EMG decomposition. These results demonstrate for the first time the possibility of a fully non-invasive investigation of motor unit behaviour in tremor-affected patients. The method provides a new means for physiological investigations of pathological tremor.