War and self-defense: ethical analysis

У овом раду се проучава однос између моралних оправдања и моралних ограничења индивидуалне самоодбране, и моралних оправдања и ограничења рата, да би се установило да ли на моралним оправдањима и ограничењима индивидуалне самоодбране у миру може да се заснује измена и ново тумачење правила рата која важе у међународном хуманитарном праву. Важећа правила рата, имунитет небораца и моралну једнакост бораца моралним аргументима подржава традиционалистичко тумачење теорије праведног рата, чији представник је Мајкл Волзер, док њихову измену предлажу представници ревизионистичког тумачења теорије праведног рата, као што је Џеф Мекмахан, који углавном заступају редуктивистички индивидуализам. Они сматрају да су ова правила пуке конвенције и желе да их заснују на моралним разлозима и људским правима. По њима би особа требало да постане легитимна мета напада у рату на основу нечега што је лично урадила и за шта је лично морално одговорна, а не једноставно на основу припадности некој групи, као што су борци. Ову промену правила рата они покушавају да подрже свођењем правила рата на морална правила и ограничења индивидуалне самоодбране у миру. Да би то постигли они користе специфичне теорије моралног оправдања самоодбране појединца у миру, које се позивају на подложност особе за напад и убијање, која је заснована на кривици или на моралној одговорности особе за неправедан напад. Примена оваквих теорија самоодбране на одређивање легитимних мета у рату може да доведе до укидања принципа имунитета небораца, до тога да су неборци који су морално одговорни за неки узрочни допринос рату, који може да буде и у прошлости, и који су ненаоружани и безопасни, легитимне мете намерног напада у рату, да се сматра морално дозвољеним и пропорционалним убити било који број ових небораца који су одређени као легитимне мете, да у односу на њих сме да се користи недискриминативно оружје за масовно уништење као што је нуклеарно, хемијско и биолошко, да се истребљење целог народа који је окарактерисан као подложан за убијање не би сматрало геноцидом, а насумично убијање оваквих цивила не би сматрало тероризмом, него легитимним чином рата. Овим цивилима не би била морално допуштена самоодбрана од бораца који покушавају да их убију, а борци њихове земље који би покушавали да их заштите сматрали би се злочинцима, којима би могло да се суди после рата. Овакве последице измене правила рата сматрамо морално неприхватљивим. Циљ овог рада био је да се испита да ли ревизионистичко схватање заиста има овакве последице, да се укаже на велику могућност злоупотребе овог схватања и да се испита да ли свођење моралних оправдања и моралних ограничења и правила рата на морална оправдања и ограничења самоодбране појединца у миру могу да подрже овакву измену правила рата коју предлажу ревизионисти. Хипотеза је била да ревизионисти нису успели да сведу морална правила која важе у рату на морална правила индивидуалне самоодбране, нити да овим свођењем подрже своје тезе о измени и новом тумачењу моралних правила рата, да није могуће водити рат у складу са тако измењеним правилима рата, из теоријских и практичних разлога. Сматрамо да би редуктивистичко схватање, када би било доследно, водило у пацифизам, уместо да даје већа овлашћења припадницима праведне стране, а да ускраћује сва права њиховим противницима. Да бисмо потврдили ову хипотезу анализирали смо основне појмове који се користе у теоријама моралног оправдања самоодбране које се примењују на рат, и њихов међусобни однос, основне појмове теорије праведног рата који се односе на правила рата, испитивали смо различите теорије моралног оправдања самоодбране и аргументе за и против моралног допуштења убијања појединих категорија претњи и нападача, који се у њима користе. Упоређивали смо правила jus ad bellum и jus in bello која морално ограничавају прибегавање рату и поступање у рату, са правилима којима се морално ограничава индивидуална самоодбрана у миру и покушали да на рат и на поступање у рату применимо морална правила индивидуалне самоодбране у непромењеном облику. Резултати које смо добили нису се поклопили са резултатима које су предложили редуктивистички индивидуалисти. Дошли смо до закључка да правила рата која они предлажу нису иста као морална правила самообране, већ да су то хибридна правила која садрже елементе моралних правила самоодбране и рата. Закључили смо да ни директна примена моралних правила самоодбране, нити примена хибридних правила на рат, не би имала последице које би редуктивистички индивидуалисти желели да покажу, и не би проширивала овлашћења борцима "праведне стране", а борце неправедне стране чинила злочинцима без обзира на то шта раде. Желели смо да покажемо да би морална правила рата, протумачена на овај начин, била или толико рестриктивна да рат према њима не би могао да се води и требало би прихватити антиратни пацифизам, са чиме се ревизионисти као представници теорије праведног рата не би сложили, или уопште не би ни могла да се примене из практичних разлога, као што су идентификовање и изоловање легитимних мета, имајући у виду сазнајна и морална ограничења људског рода. Легитимне мете не би могле да се утврде према ревизионистичким критеријумима ни из теоријских разлога и због проблема на које смо указали, који су у вези са појмом подложности за напад и убијање и његовим односом са појмовима неправедне претње и пропорционалности, у чијем одређењу постоји циркуларност. Критиковали смо и сам појам подложности за напад и убијање, који се у савременој литератури о етици самоодбране и теорији праведног рата не доводи у питање и узима здраво за готово, и уместо њега предложили појам подложности за моралну осуду.In this paper it is examined the relation between moral justifications and moral limits of individual self-defense on one side, and moral justifications and moral limits of war, on the other side, in order to determine whether it is possible to found the change and the new interpretation of rules and laws of war, currently accepted by international humanitarian law, on these moral justifications and limits of individual self-defense in peace. Current laws of war, the principle of immunity of non-combatants and moral equality of combatants are supported by moral arguments of philosophers who represent the traditionalist version of contemporary just war theory, like Michael Walzer. The revisionist philosophers, who mainly argue for reductive individualism in just war theory, like Jeff McMahan, propose the modifications of these rules which they consider only conventional. The revisionists want to found the rules of war on moral reasons and human rights. According to them, the determination of legitimate targets of attack in war should be based on one person’s individual acts and individual moral responsibility, on the personal liability to be attacked and killed, and not just on being a member of a group, like the group of combatants. The revisionists try to support and to argue for the modification of rules of war by reducing these rules to moral rules and limits of individual self-defense in peace. In order to accomplish this reduction they use specific theories of moral justification of self-defense, based on individual liability to be attacked and to be killed, which can be founded on personal culpability or moral responsibility of a person for an unjust attack. The application of these theories of self-defense on determination of legitimate targets of attack in war can lead to abandoning the principle of immunity of non-combatants and it can make harmless unarmed non-combatants, even those who are morally responsible for the past causal contribution to unjust attack, legitimate targets in war. Massive killing of any number of these non-combatants would be considered proportionate and morally permitted, according to this interpretation of rules of war. It would be morally permitted to use the indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction, like nuclear, chemical and biological, against these non-combatants if they were liable to be killed. Extinction of the nation that is characterized as liable to be killed wouldn’t be considered like genocide and random killing of these civilians wouldn’t be considered terroristic, but the legitimate act of war. It wouldn’t be morally allowed to these civilians to defend themselves from the combatants who are trying to kill them. Combatants on their side of war who would try to defend them would be considered criminals, who could be judged after the war for this crime. We consider these consequences of the change of rules of war morally unacceptable. The aim of this thesis was to examine whether the revisionist conception had these consequences, to point at great possibility of abuse of this conception, to examine whether the reduction of moral justification and moral limits and rules of war to moral justification, moral limits and rules of self-defense can support this change of rules of war proposed by revisionists. The hypothesis was that revisionist did not succeed to reduce the moral rules of war to moral rules of individual self-defense, and did not succeed to support the change and the new interpretation of the rules of war by this reduction. We think that it is not possible to wage the war according to those modified rules, for theoretical and practical reasons. The reductionist conception, if it was coherent, would lead to acceptance of pacifist position, and wouldn’t give more permissions to combatants of the just side and refuse to recognize the rights to the combatants who oppose them. In order to confirm this hypothesis we have analyzed fundamental concepts used in the theories of moral justification of self-defense that are applied to war, and the relation between these concepts. We have analyzed the fundamental concepts of just war theory, related to rules of war. We have examined different theories of moral justification of self-defense and arguments for and against moral permission of killing of particular categories of threats and attackers that appear in these theories. We have compared the rules jus ad bellum and jus in bello, which impose the moral limits to the beginning and the conduct of war, with the moral rules which determine moral limits of individual self-defense in peace. We have tried to apply moral rules of individual self-defense to the conduct in war, in a completely unchanged shape. The result of our examination did not match to the results that revisionists proposed. Our conclusion was that the rules of war and the interpretation of these rules that revisionists proposed are not the same moral rules that limit individual self-defense, but the hybrid rules that contain elements of moral rules of self-defense and the rules of war. We think that neither direct application of moral rules of self-defense on war nor the application of hybrid rules on war would have the consequences that revisionists wanted to show. It would neither give more permission to the combatants of the just side nor make the combatants of the unjust side criminals, no matter what they do in war. We wanted to show that the moral rules of war, interpreted in that way, would be either so restrictive that it would be impossible to wage the war if the participants were submitted to them, and the pacifism should be accepted, which is not consistent with revisionism as a form of just war theory, or these rules couldn’t be applied for practical reasons, like identification and isolation of legitimate targets, and epistemological and moral limitations of human beings. It would be impossible to determine legitimate targets of attack by the criteria of this conception because of theoretical reasons and because of the problems that we have pointed at, concerning the concept of liability to be attacked and killed and its relation with the concepts of unjust threat and proportionality, which contain the circularity in their determinations. We have criticized the very concept of liability to be attacked and killed. We consider that this concept is took for granted and not problematized enough in the contemporary literature on ethics of self-defense and the just war theory and we have introduced the concept of liability to be morally condemned instead

Changes in total viable count and TVB-N content in marinated chicken breast fillets during storage

Marination is a popular technique for enhancing meat properties. Depending on the marinade type and ingredients added, marination can improve sensory, chemical and microbiological quality of meat products. In this study, the total viable count and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) content in marinated chicken breast fillets were investigated. The possible correlation between bacterial growth and formation of TVB-N was also tested. Chicken breast fillets were immersed in a solution of table salt (as a control) orthree different marinades, which consisted of table salt, sodium tripolyphosphate and/or sodium citrate, and stored in air for nine days at 4 +/- 1 degrees C. Analyses of the total viable count and TVB-N were performed on days0, 3, 6 and 9 day of storage. The total viable count gradually increased in all examined groups, and statistically significant differences (p<0.01; p<0.05) between treatments on days0, 3 and 6 day of storage were established. TVB-N values in marinated chicken were significantly higher (p<0.01; p<0.05) compared to the control. Using the multiple linear regression, a positive correlation between total viable count and formation of TVB-N in chicken marinated with sodium citrate was established (p<0.05), while the intensity of TVB-N formation was lowest in chicken marinated with sodium tripolyphosphate

Synthesis of BaFe12O19-BaTiO3 multiferroics by mechanical activation

A mixture of polycrystalline powders of Fe (70 % wt.) and BaTiO3 (30 % wt.) was ball-milled in a planetary mill under air atmosphere, for different time intervals: 60, 120, 180, 240, 300 and 360 min. During the mechanical activation, the powder was exposed to oxygen from the air, resulting in formation of iron oxides: FeO and then Fe2O3 and Fe3O4. XRD and SEM analyses of the activated powders revealed that the weight fraction of the iron oxides in the mixture and microcrystal size depend on the activation time. For the powders activated for different time intervals, average crystallite size (Dhkl), dislocation density (ρn) and average microcrystal size of BaTiO3 and Fe were determined. In order to investigate the influence of thermally induced structural changes on magnetic properties, the change of magnetic properties of the pressed activated powders during multiple heating in a magnetic field of 10KA/m was measured. Maximum magnetization of the samples was reached after heating at 620 K. Pressed powder samples were sintered at temperatures of 1100 oC and 1200 °C for 2h giving the different phase diagrams. The samples sintered at 1100 oC include BaTiO3, BaFe12O19 and BaFeO2,67 as the dominant components. The samples sintered at 1200 °C containing only two components, BaTiO3 and BaFe12O19, exhibited pronounced ferromagnetic and ferroelectric propertie

Radical scavenging and antimicrobial activity of essential oil and extracts of Echinophora sibthorpiana Guss. from Macedonia

This study was undertaken to determine the antioxidant and antimicrobial effect of essential oil and extracts of Echinophora sibthorpiana Guss. (fam. Apiaceae) collected in Macedonia. The chemical composition of E. sibthorpiana essential oil was characterized by the presence of methyl eugenol (60.40%), p-cymene (11.18%) and α-phellandrene (10.23%). The free radical scavenging activity of extracts and essential oil was evaluated by DPPH and ABTS assays. The aqueous extract of aerial parts exhibited the strongest scavenging activity (IC50=1.67 mg/ml); results of the ABTS test showed that the most effective was the ethanol extract of aerial parts (1.11 mg vit. C/g). The essential oil showed stronger antioxidant activity compared to hydroxyanisole, ascorbic acid and quercetin that were used in the DPPH and ABTS tests, respectively. The total phenolic and flavonoid concentrations in the extracts ranged between 38.65-60.72 mg GA/g, and 3.15-19.00 mg Qu/g, respectively. The antimicrobial properties of the extracts and essential oil were investigated using a micro-well dilution technique against human pathogenic strains. The results were comparable with the effects of the positive controls, streptomycin and fluconazole. These findings indicate that E. sibthorpiana extracts and oil can be used in preventive treatments and as an alternative for synthetic preservatives. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 173029 i br. 173021

Element concentration and fatty acid composition of Serbian bee bread

The element concentration (Cu, Fe, Zn, Mn, Cr, Co, Ni, Se, K, Na, Ca and Mg), heavy metal concentration (Cd, Hg, Pb and As) and fatty acid composition of 12 Serbian bee bread samples from different geographical origins were examined. The element concentration was examined using ICP-MS, and total lipids for fatty acid determination were extracted from homogenized bee bread samples with hexane/isopropanol mixture by accelerated solvent extraction. Potassium was the major element, ranging between 5515 +/- 361.20 mg/kg and 7487 +/- 381.50 mg/kg. The highest As and Pb concentrations were found in bee breads from Lazarevac. This bee bread also contained the highest level of PUFA and SFA. Also, the n-6/n-3 ratio ranged between 0.86 +/- 0.28 and 1.40 +/- 0.05, indicating bee bread can be a good source of unsaturated fatty acids. Bee bread could be useful in monitoring environmental contamination by heavy metals (Cd, Hg, Pb and As), although complex studies of all bee products give sufficient information on this topic

Allergen labelling in meat, dairy and cereal products from the Serbian market

Allergens in food are a great health risk, because of the ratio of severity of problems compared to small amounts of ingested allergen. Since 2014, Serbian producers and importers of food have been obliged to declare allergens from the list of Codex Alimentarius on the product packaging. Surveillance of different meat, diary, and cereal product took place in 2016, with aim of checking if the Serbian regulatory requirements for labelling of allergens in food are being fulfilled. Out of 68 different meat products, 20 were not labelled for allergens. Thirty-six labels of various dairy products were examined revealing that allergen information was included on 27 of them. Only one of eight examined cereal products did not have allergen labelling

Supplementary data for article: Pantelić, M. M.; Zagorac, D. Č. D.; Ćirić, I. Ž.; Pergal, M. V.; Relić, D. J.; Todić, S. R.; Natić, M. M. Phenolic Profiles, Antioxidant Activity and Minerals in Leaves of Different Grapevine Varieties Grown in Serbia. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 2017, 62, 76–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2017.05.002

Supplementary material for: [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2017.05.002]Related to published version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/2505]Related to accepted version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/3063

Примена lc–ms/ms технике са јонском покретљивошћу за хемијску анализу екстраката прополиса са антимикробним потенцијалом.

The objective of this study was to test four-dimensional LC-ESI-MS/MS chromatography in analysis of complex mixture such as ethanol extracts of different propolis samples. In total more than 1200 picks were identified and only for 185 literature conformation was found. The given data represent the result of tentative identification, and summarized results are given in the text. Comparing the samples, from different altitudes, 96 components were detected as characteristic in high altitude samples and 18 in samples collected at low altitudes. Antimicrobial activity of ethanol extracts of propolis (EEP) and pro­pyl­ene glycol extracts of propolis (PGEP) were carried out on S. aureus, B. cereus, M. flavus, L. monocytogenes, P. aeruginosa, S. typhimurium, E. coli and E. cloacae bacterial strains and compared with broad-spectrum antibiotics, streptomycin and ampicillin. Anti-quorum sensing activity was performed on P. aeruginosa by testing the effect of representative propolis extracts on bio­film formation, twitching and motility activity and production of pyocyanin. We demonstrated that the majority of explored propolis extracts have greater or equal minimal inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concen­tra­tion values compared to antibiotics, independently of the solvent used for the extraction. The samples collected from the highest altitude emerged as least active antimicrobial agents but with the greatest potential as anti-quorum sen­sing agents.Циљ овог истраживања је билo тестирање четвородимензионалне LC–ESI-MS/MS хроматографије у анализи комплексних смеша, као што су етанолни екстракти различитих узорака прополиса. Укупно је идентификовано више од 1200 пикова, а самo за 185 смо нашли литературну потврду. Приказани подаци представљају тентативну идентификацију и сумирани резултат је дат у тексту. Поређењем узорака са различитих надморских висина, за 96 једињења је утврђено да се налазе само у узорцима са високе надморске висине и 18 само у узорцима прикупљеним на нижим надморским висинама. Антибактеријске активности етанолних и пропиленгликолних екстрактата прополиса (EEP и PGEP, редом) тестиране су на S. aureus, B. cereus, M. flavus, L. monocytogenes, P. aeruginosa, S. typhimurium, E. coli и E. cloacae бактеријским линијама и поређене са анти- биотицима широког спектра деловања, стрептомицином и ампицилином. Anti-quorum sensing активност је тестирана на P. aeruginosa испитивањем ефекта репрезентативних екстраката прополиса на формирање биофилма, тестовима покретљивости руба коло- није (twitching и mobility) и производње пиоцианина. Показали смо да највећи број, коришћених екстраката прополиса, има истe и/или мање MIC и MBC вредности, у поре- ђењу са атибиотицима, независно од растварача коришћеног за екстракцију. Узорци прикупљени на високим надморским висинама су се показали као најмање активни антибактерициди али имају велики anti-quorum sensing потенцијал.Part of the theme issue honoring Professor Emeritus Slobodan Milosavljevićs 80th birthday