Background. Children with autism disorder show atypical preference for non-social stimuli. Therefore, the deficits of social communication and social interest are primary and usually named features for the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The main idea of the present work was to show that the physiotherapy sessions (PS) were some of the ways that could improve the physical condition of children with ADS. Moreover, the application of such programs increased self-esteem, communication skills and permitted a better adaptation and integration within society. Methods. Eleven children attending kindergarten for children with special needs participated in this investigation. The inclusion criteria were a clinical diagnosis of ASD. All participants had F 84.0 code in their cases and were specified for grade II autism disorder according to the American Psychiatric Association (2014). The investigation process consisted of four stages: the initial testing, the application of the physiotherapy program (PS), the post-application testing and the analysis, interpretation and comparison of obtained results. The investigation process was applied for six weeks. Results. After PS applications, the children’s balance improved by 21.32%, coordination – 23.36%, physical and functional abilities such as speed (13.18%) and explosive leg strength (37.14%). Conclusions. The physiotherapy sessions improved the physical condition of children with ADS: balance, coordination, functional abilities and the explosive leg strength. The capability to do physical exercises in a group, at home or in individual sessions with specialist improved as well. Keywords:  pre-school children, individual physiotherapy program, social skills.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance that is diagnosed in pregnancy period, leading to possible complications for both mother and fetus during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to build an objective method to evaluate diabetes mellitus (DM) risk from past GDM data recorded 15 years ago and find a short list of most informative indicators. The dataset consists of demographic, lifestyle, clinical, genetic and pregnancy related information recorded 15 years ago. Due to the large time gap data are limited and have missing values (MVs). Follow-up tests were performed to see if DM or impaired metabolism has developed after pregnancy with previously diagnosed GDM. The research steps involve pre-processing data to evaluate MVs, finding most informative attributes and testing standard classification algorithms to combine in to most effective voting meta-algorithm. Initially the attributes and records with large number of MVs were rejected. A small percentage (2.04%) was imputed using regression based methods. The data set was prepared for two scenarios: classification in two classes (1-healthy; 2-impaired metabolism including DM) and three classes (1-healthy; 2-impaired metabolism; 3-DM). Voting meta-algorithm combining best algorithms of 21 from five different groups including Bayesian, regression, lazy, rule, and decision trees makes classification more objective and not depending on preferences. Relative frequency of occurrence (RFO) analysis of attributes combined with voting meta-algorithm helped finding optimal amount of attributes giving best possible classification result. The algorithm applied to two class data set with 12 selected attributes produced accuracy of 75.85 and AUC = 0.82 with standard error of 0.11. Similarly for three class dataset the 9 attributes were selected allowing to reach classification accuracy 63.77 and AUC = 0.76 with standard error of 0.1. Meta-algorithm based classification of limited anamnestic GDM related data for DM prediction is proving to be effective. Testing multiple algorithms and performing RFO analysis appears to be natural and objective way of selecting most informative attributes and evaluating their importance.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a rapidly increasing problem in health care worldwide: recent forecast indicates that the number of DM patients will rise to 640 million by 2040. Vascular damage is associated with severe complications, including cardiac neuropathy and limb amputation. Therefore, early prediction of diabetic vascular damage using advanced technologies is an important challenge because timely preventive and therapeutic measures could diminish the risk of development and burden of complications. The aim of the article is to provide a review of the initial stages of vascular damage and main mechanisms for development, as well as appropriate modern technologies for prediction and diagnosis. The manuscript provides an overview of interrelated vascular damage mechanisms influenced by diabetes, along with a review of possible technologies for early prediction and diagnosis. A comparative analysis of technologies appropriate for particular issues of prediction is summarised in the discussion.INDEX TERMS Arterial stiffness and atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus vascular complications, endothelial dysfunction, evaluation technologies. V. DEVELOPMENT OF INTIMA AND MEDIA CALCIFICATION AND ITS EVALUATION METHODS

The identification of the main steps for the creation of a unified ecosystem from the institutional point of view and the framework for ecosystem design is presented and discussed. Based on the expertise and the knowledge gained during the time when the ELISE project had been implemented, a unified Kaunas city ecosystem is being designed using the Ecosystem Map method. As the review of the ELISE project reports helped to identify the main steps of each project partner in building ecosystems’ networks, Kaunas city chose to create a co-Creation Hub (c-CH), which is the first step in developing an ecosystem management model. The main tasks of such a hub are listed, and should involve the preparation of a long-term action plan involving not only the coordination of the stakeholder meetings, organisation of seminars, the preparation of new materials, and methodology but also the development of a clear strategy for each stakeholder based on national economy and government and municipality policies. The role of the c-CH is to ensure the ease of cooperation and knowledge distribution among stakeholders within the city, public authorities, and the national government. This approach could become a fundamental background tool for the regional and/or city municipal and stakeholder-based creation and development of unified ecosystem development.

No abstract