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Making science enjoyable inspires students to learn more. Out-of-class activities such as science fairs and Olympiads, serve as reasonable informal learning environments that demand attention. The association of students’ involvement in these activities with increased student interest in science followed by the selection of science-related careers, should motivate all in-charge stakeholders. In this work, we analysed the outcomes of the Bosnia Science Olympiad (BSO) as the first national Science Olympiad in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), aiming the improvement of science education and bringing different ethnic groups under the umbrella of science, in a post-conflict area. The two-day endeavour held in Sarajevo includes competition in four science-related categories (Environment, Engineering, Have an Idea, Web Design) and social activities. In this work, the comprehensive data, including participants’ gender, their ethnic background, cities, schools, and supervisors, over five years, was analysed. The number of participating high-school students increased from 78 to 143, of supervisors from 21 to 95, and of schools from 7 to 15, reaching a wide demographic acceptance to cover all ethnic regions in BiH. The relationship between gender and the selection of a category, shows bias of male participants towards Web Design (21%) and Engineering (40%), and of female students towards “Have an Idea” (40%) and Environment (44%) categories. The contribution of BSO choosing a science career, getting socialized without prejudices, and the improvement of students’ self-confidence, were as well addressed. Our work demonstrates a model work to successfully promote science in post-conflict settings.

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ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy of aqueous cell culture samples is explained step-by-step. Infrared spectra acquisition, processing and analysis is included briefly.

The myosin II motors are ATP-powered, force-generating machines driving cardiac and muscle contraction. Myosin II heavy chain isoform- beta (beta-MyHC) is primarily expressed in the ventricular myocardium and slow-twitch muscle fibers, such as in M. soleus. M. soleus-derived myosin II (SolM-II) is often used as an alternative to the ventricular beta-cardiac myosin (beta M-II); however, the direct assessment of detailed biochemical and mechanical features of the native myosins is limited. By employing the optical trapping method, we examined the mechanochemical properties of the native myosins isolated from rabbit heart ventricle and M. soleus muscles at the single-molecule level. Contrary to previous reports, the purified motors from the two tissue sources, despite the same MyHC isoform, displayed distinct motile and ATPase kinetic properties. Beta M-II was nearly threefold faster in the actin filament-gliding assay than SolM-II. The maximum acto-myosin (AM) detachment rate derived in single-molecule assays was threefold higher in beta M-II. The stroke size for both myosins was comparable. The stiffness of the AM rigor cross-bridge was also similar for both the motor forms. The stiffness of beta M-II was found to be determined by the nucleotide state of the actin-bound myosin. Our analysis revealed distinct kinetic differences, i.e., a higher AM detachment rate for the beta M-II, corresponding to the ADP release rates from the cross-bridge, thus elucidating the observed differences in the motility driven by beta M-II and SolM-II. These studies have important implications for the future choice of tissue sources to gain insights into cardiomyopathies