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This paper presents the development of a questionnaire for measuring the quality of the work of the PR department (office, sector) in organizations. For this purpose, the necessary research was carried out with experts in the field of public relations, and the statistical methods of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used. The research was conducted in Serbia. As a result of these procedures and analysis, a questionnaire was prepared for measuring the quality of the work of the PR department in organizations. The questionnaire consists of 5 dimensions and 16 items. The dimensions are as follows: ethical and responsible action, proactive and quality action, strategic and effective action, media relations and internal public relations. The questionnaire can be widely applied, both in practical terms and in a theoretical (scientific) sense. The basic practical application of the questionnaire involves evaluating PR department according to the set items and dimensions. In a scientific sense, the questionnaire can be used to examine the impact of various aspects of organizational behaviour on the quality of the work of the PR department, as well as the impact of the quality of the work of the PR department on different aspects of financial and organizational performance.

This paper presents the results of a research into the volume, type and quality of the evaluation of public relations activities in companies in Serbia. The survey was conducted via a web survey. The responses were collected from 50 PR service managers from 50 companies in Serbia. The results are presented through descriptive statistics and correlation analysis where some of the observed sizes of the connection were analyzed. The main conclusions can be summarized as follows: PR functions are often not assigned sufficient importance in companies in Serbia; the evaluation of PR activity is slightly neglected compared to other PR activities; intensive and continuous evaluation of the performances of PR activities increases the likelihood of the complete PR function of the company being successful; companies that are not so successful use evaluation less than successful companies; the evaluation of PR activities is mostly done through a method for measuring quantity; the main problems in the evaluation of PR activities are lack of time and money. The evaluation of PR activities in companies in Serbia can be improved through a greater understanding on the part of top managers, and also by hiring additional PR practitioners.

Phycocyanobilin (PCB) binds with high affinity (2.2 x 106 M-1 at 25°C) to human serum albumin (HSA) at sites located in IB and IIA subdomains. The aim of this study was to examine effects of PCB binding on protein conformation and stability. Using 300 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, UV-VIS spectrophotometry, CD, FT-IR, spectrofluorimetry, thermal denaturation and susceptibility to trypsin digestion, we studied the effects of PCB binding on the stability and rigidity of HSA, as well as the conformational changes in PCB itself upon binding to the protein. MD simulation results demonstrated that HSA with PCB bound at any of the two sites showed greater rigidity and lower overall and individual domain flexibility compared to free HSA. Experimental data demonstrated an increase in the α-helical content of the protein and thermal and proteolytic stability upon ligand binding. PCB bound to HSA undergoes a conformational change to a more elongated conformation in the binding pockets of HSA. PCB binding to HSA stabilizes the structure of this flexible transport protein, making it more thermostable and resistant to proteolysis. The results from this work explain at molecular level, conformational changes and stabilization of HSA structure upon ligand binding. The resultant increased thermal and proteolytic stability of HSA may provide greater longevity to HSA in plasma.

In a previous study, it was shown that the lipid fraction, which is occasionally observed in red blood cell hemolysates, represents cholesterol (Ch) associated with phospholipid firmly bound to haemoglobin (termed Hb-Ch). The current study was conducted to investigate whether Hb-Ch could affect the primary anti-oxidant enzyme defence system in human erythrocytes. Sixty healthy volunteers were used for the current study. Group 1 consisted of 28 subjects without or with a low level of Hb-Ch. Group 2 comprised 32 subjects with a considerably higher level of Hb-Ch. The activities of erythrocyte superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase, as well as the content of methaemoglobin (metHb) were measured in both groups. The results indicated that the amount ofHb-Ch neither influenced the activities of the erythrocyte anti-oxidant enzymes nor altered the level of metHb. However, a higher amount ofHb-Ch changed the correlations in the part of the anti-oxidant defence system relating to glutathione, suggesting increased peroxidative pressure from plasma lipids. Group 2 also had significantly increased concentrations of total plasma Ch and triglycerides. Together, these facts are strong indications that the anti-oxidant defence system in human erythrocytes finely retunes its composition according to plasma oxidative demands.

The peroxynitrite-induced nitration of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) tyrosine residue, which causes enzyme inactivation, is well established. This led to suggestions that MnSOD nitration and inactivation in vivo, detected in various diseases associated with oxidative stress and overproduction of nitric monoxide (NO), conditions which favor peroxynitrite formation, is also caused by peroxynitrite. However, our previous in vitro study demonstrated that exposure of MnSOD to NO led to NO conversion into nitrosonium (NO+) and nitroxyl (NO–) species, which caused enzyme modifications and inactivation. Here it is reported that MnSOD is tyrosine nitrated upon exposure to NO, as well as that MnSOD nitration contributes to inactivation of the enzyme. Collectively, these observations provide a compelling argument supporting the generation of nitrating species in MnSOD exposed to NO and shed a new light on MnSOD tyrosine nitration and inactivation in vivo. This may represent a novel mechanism by which MnSOD protects cell from deleterious effects associated with overproduction of NO. However, extensive MnSOD modification and inactivation associated with prolonged exposure to NO will amplify the toxic effects caused by increased cell superoxide and NO levels.

Recently, it was demonstrated that prolonged hyperinsulinism associated with hypoglycemia, both in vivo and in vitro, caused covalent glycoinositolphospholipid (GPI) binding to the C termini of both hemoglobin b-chains, which resulted in the formation of a novel, hitherto unrecognized, minor hemoglobin fraction (GPI-Hb) (Niketic et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 239 (1997) 435). In this study it was demonstrated that exposure of erythrocyte membranes to insulin causes the activation of membrane protease as well as that the formation of GPI-Hb parallels its activity. It is suggested that the insulin-activated protease is able to catalyze, albeit slowly, the transpeptidation, i.e., the replacement of the carboxy-terminal amino acid(s) residues of the Hb b-chains with GPI as an exogenous nucleophile. To our knowledge the present results show for the first time that insulin stimulates protease activity in erythrocyte membranes, as well as that insulin-activated protease may be involved in post-translational GPI binding to proteins.

Under hypoglycemic conditions, concomitant hyperinsulinism causes an apparent modification of hemoglobin (Hb) which is manifested by its aggregation (Niketi} et al., Clin. Chim. Acta 197 (1991) 47). In the present work the causes and mechanisms underlying this Hb modification were studied. Hemoglobin isolated from normal erythrocytes incubated with insulin was analyzed by applying 31P-spectrometry and lipid extraction and analysis. To study the dynamics of the plasma membrane during hyperinsulinism, a fluorescent lipid-analog was applied. In the presence of insulin, phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and cholesterol were found to bind to Hb. Lipid binding resulted in Hb aggregation, a condition that can be reproduced when phospholipids are incubated with Hb in vitro. Using a fluorescent lipid-analog, it was also shown that exposing erythrocytes to supraphysiological concentrations of insulin in vitro resulted in the internalization of lipids. The results presented in this work may have relevance to cases of diabetes mellitus and hypoglycemia.

In this work GPI binding to membrane proteins from erythrocytes of insulinoma patients for whom prolonged hyperinsulinism and hypoglycemia were characteristic, as well as from normal erythrocytes incubated with supraphysiological concentrations of insulin were analyzed. In the RBCs from insulinoma patients, covalent GPI binding to red cell membrane proteins in the spectrin/ankyrin region, band 4.1 and two proteins of molecular mass of 115 and 110 kD was demonstrated. In erythrocytes incubated with insulin label was associated with band 4.1 and two proteins of molecular mass of 115 and 110 kD. Extraction studies showed that the 100-kD proteins are unrelated to band 3 since they were found in Triton-prepared cytoskeleton. To our knowledge this is the first demonstration of such a modification of red cell skeletal proteins, and the first demonstration of post-translation GPI binding to red cell skeletal proteins in response to insulin. A mechanism proposed for GPI binding to red cell skeletal proteins as well as the relevance of these results for physiological disorders that are characterized by hyperinsulinism are briefly discussed.