Distribution of heavy metals from tailings ponds and landfills into underground and surface waters

Heavy metals contaminate underground and surface waters from illegally constructed industrial and municipal landfills. Numerous papers on the subject contain undeniable evidence, and they have determined heavy metal migration into nature by measuring concentrations in underground and surface waters near tailings ponds and landfills. Heavy metal measured values exceed the WHO limit quota. The characteristics of heavy metals and their negative impact on the environment and people's health have prompted a large number of investigations into this global problem. This paper provides an overview of the literature on the subject, with the goal of emphasizing the anthropogenic influence of heavy metal pollution as a critical issue, particularly in developing countries

Principi i modaliteti primene novih medija u arhitekturi

The contemporary age is marked by the rapidly advanced digital revolution, unstoppable rise of computer technologies and omnipresence of technological advancements in all aspects of everyday life. In the information era, computer technologies have become pervasive, ubiquitous and dominant. Their hybridization with previously present media forms resulted in the emergence of a new and exuberant field of new media and technologies. New media is a hybrid field of computer based technological forms, which are used in contemporary practice, not only as tool, but also as an expressive medium. Because of the complex nature of new media, the field is extremely hybrid, positioned at the intersection of art, science and culture. Its emerged cultural paradigm is scientific culture, in which dominant characteristics are technological art and cultural forms, as well as information and techno society. In this overall context, architecture is not an isolated phenomenon. The new media have influenced the field of architecture too, offering new possibilities, features, design methodologies and principles for conceptualizing and developing architectural space. In architectural practice different modalities of the new media are being used. These modalities initiated the emergence of the field of new media architecture. The distinction of these state-of-the-art types of architectural space, together with the principles and concepts they rely on, were the main focus and main contribution of the research presented in this paper.Savremeno doba obeleženo je digitalnom revolucijom, rapidnim usponom računarskih tehnologija, kao i opštom tehnologizacijom svakodnevice. U informatičkoj eri, računarske tehnologije postale su dominantne, a uparene sa ranije prisutnim medijskim formama, oformile su bujno polje novih medija i tehnologija. Novi mediji predstavljaju hibridnu oblast računarski zasnovanih tehnoloških formi u kojima se tehnologije pojavljuju i u ulozi ekspresivnog medija. Zbog kompleksne prirode novih medija oblast predstavlja izrazito interdisciplinarno polje na preseku umetnosti, nauke i kulture, a kulturološka paradigma koju je ovo polje ustanovilo odlikuju izrazito naučna kultura, tehnologizovana umetnost i informaciono društvo. U ovakvoj situaciji, ni arhitektura nije izolovan fenomen, pa je prodor novih medija ustanovio nove pojave, postupke, kao i principe za konceptualizaciju i realizaciju prostora u arhitekturi. Pojava novih medija u arhitekturi podrazumeva njihove različite modalitete primene, koji su uslovili razvoj novih i specifičnih tipova prostora. Specificiranje tipova ovakvih prostora, zajedno sa principima i konceptima na kojima se zasnivaju, predmet je istraživanja koje je predstavljeno u radu koji sledi

The Structure of the 2-factor Transfer Digraph common for Thin Cylinder, Torus and Klein Bottle Grid Graphs

We prove that the transfer digraph ${\cal D}^*_{C,m}$ needed for the enumeration of 2-factors in the thin cylinder $TnC_{m}(n)$, torus $TG_{m}(n)$ and Klein bottle $KB_m(n)$ (all grid graphs of the fixed width $m$ and with $m \cdot n$ vertices), when $m$ is odd, has only two components of order $2^{m-1}$ which are isomorphic. When $m$ is even, ${\cal D}^*_{C,m}$ has $\left\lfloor \frac{m}{2} \right\rfloor + 1$ components which orders can be expressed via binomial coefficients and all but one of the components are bipartite digraphs. The proof is based on the application of recently obtained results concerning the related transfer digraph for linear grid graphs (rectangular, thick cylinder and Moebius strip).Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2212.0031

An Environmental Critique: Impact of Socialist Ideology on the Ecological and Cultural Sensitivity of Belgrade's Large-Scale Residential Settlements

This paper advocates the stance that sustainable approaches in architecture, although usually associated to contemporary practice, have a very complex relationship with the history of architecture and urbanism. By adopting an interpretative framework, the paper highlights the environmental aspects of the architectural practice of Belgrade's large-scale residential settlements created under the cultural influences of socialist ideology. The socialist system enabled systematic implementation of the principles of the Congres International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) on a large urban scale, in contrast to capitalist countries where these principles were applied on a smaller scale. The paper starts with the premise that these cultural influences, together with the integration of the principles of modernism, caused the rejection and the loss of traditional and ambience values in architecture. Research has shown that these values play a very important role in meeting the needs of ecological and cultural sensitivity in architecture. In its final consequences, the results of research have revealed that, although widely criticized for its break with tradition and the loss of ambience values, residential architecture in Belgrade during the socialist era included significant aspirations of the architectural practice directed at the improvement of aspects of sustainability, and especially aspects of ecological and cultural sensitivity

Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Periapical Lesions Upregulate the Production of Immunoregulatory Cytokines by Inflammatory Cells in Culture

The pathophysiology of periapical lesions (PLs) is under control of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory (mainly immunoregulatory) cytokines. We have recently established mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from PLs and showed their suppressive effects on the production of proinflammatory cytokines from PLs inflammatory cells (ICs). In this work we studied the production of interleukin (IL)-10, IL-27 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, by PL-ICs in direct or indirect contacts with PL-MSCs. PL-ICs, which were isolated from four different asymptomatic PLs, predominantly composed of lymphocytes, followed by neutrophil granulocytes, macrophages and plasma cells. PLMSCs, expressing typical MSC markers, were co-cultivated with PL-ICs at 1:10 ratio, either in direct contact or in a transwell-system, for 24 hours. The levels of cytokines in cell-culture supernatants were tested by ELISA. The results showed that PL-MSCs up-regulated the production of all three immunoregulatory cytokines by PL-ICs. PL-MSCs stimulated the production of IL-10 and IL-27 via soluble factors, whereas the up-regulation of TGF-β required direct cell-to-cell contacts. In conclusion, our results showed for the first time the involvement of PL-MSCs in restriction of inflammation in PLs by up-regulation of immunoregulatory cytokines

Mortgage market in the Republic of Serbia: present situation and prospects

This paper discusses the development of mortgage loans market in the Republic of Serbia through development of the instruments for provision of legal security of investments - both to creditors and to debtors. It explains the process of establishment of Real Estate Cadastre as a prerequisite for registration of real estate mortgages. Creation of the Central Mortgage Register is an additional service that provides transparency of the procedures and mortgage market development. The entire procedure has been illustrated by the statistical data on the increase of the number of registered mortgages, starting from 1998 through the end of 2011. The impact of the global economic crisis on the moderate decrease of the number of new mortgages in the Republic of Serbia is quite evident

Importance of N-terminal proline for the promiscuous activity of 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT)

Michael addition of aldehydes to nitro-olefins is an effective method to obtain useful chiral gamma-nitroaldehydes. gamma-Nitroaldehydes are precursors for chiral gamma-aminobutyric acid analogues, which have numerous pharmacological activities and are used for the treatment of neurological disorders. A whole-cell system based on recombinantly expressed 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT) was developed and shown to be an effective biocatalyst for the Michael addition of branched aldehydes to beta-nitrostyrenes. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the substitution of the N-terminal proline with lysine and arginine, both containing a reactive epsilon-amino group, on the Michael addition catalyzed by 4-OT. First, the effects of these mutations were examined by in silico analysis, followed by the generation of three terminal lysine mutants. The generated mutants, 4-OT_K, 4-OT_PK and 4-OT_KK were tested for their ability to utilise beta-nitrostyrene (1), (E)-1-nitro-2-(2-thienyl)ethene (2) and trans-p-chloro-beta-nitrostyrene (3) as Michael acceptors with isobutanal (2-methylpropanal) as the donor. For comparison, the lithium salt of lysine was used in the same organocatalytic reactions. In general, the introduction of lysine had a negative effect on Michael additions based on overall product yields. However, additional lysine residues at the N-terminus of the protein resulted in structural changes that enhanced the activity towards 2 and 3. Therefore, the N-terminal proline is important for 4-OT-catalysed Michael-additions, but it is not essential

Lactobacilli hydrolysis of cows' milk proteins abrogates their humoral immunoreactivity in patients with immune-mediated diseases

The level of humoral immunoreactivity to total cows' milk proteins (TCMP) in sera of patients suffering from recurrent oral ulcerations, gastrointestinal diseases or haematological malignancies was investigated. TCMP were also hydrolysed with two different species of lactobacilli and dramatic changes in the levels of specific IgG and IgE were found with statistically significant decreases in the levels of specific antibodies in sera from all patient groups. The levels below cut-off values of IgG specific for TCMP hydrolysates were detected in sera from all patients, while values of IgE for hydrolysates obtained with Lactobacillus helveticus BGRA43 and Lactobacillus zeae LMG17315were below cut-off in 85% and 97% of patients, respectively. Competitive ELISA confirmed the specificity of antibodies for immunogenic TCMP epitopes, demonstrating that lactobacilli hydrolyse TCMP by degrading immunogenic epitopes, and could therefore be used in processing of milk proteins to obtain products suitable for patients with altered immune response on TCMP.This is the peer reviewed version of the paper: Vukotic, G., Matic, I., Begovic, J., Besu, I., Kojic, M., Djokic, J., Juranic, Z., & Strahinic, I. (2016). Lactobacilli hydrolysis of cows’ milk proteins abrogates their humoral immunoreactivity in patients with immune-mediated diseases. International Dairy Journal, 63, 1–7. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idairyj.2016.07.009

The Textuality of the Modernist Rural Landscape: Belgrade Agricultural Combine (PKB) as a Driver of the Urban Development of Third Belgrade

This paper considers the landscape as both a material and an ideological representation and starts from the assumption that spatial patterns arise as a result of the ideological imperative of the process that forms the landscape. The research takes on a historical-interpretative approach in the domain of architectural and urban studies, enabling in-depth qualitative exploration of the textuality and layering of the modernist rural landscape through a case study of the PKB Agricultural Combine as a driver of the urban development of Third Belgrade, the spatial framework of the left riverbank of the Danube in the administrative area of Belgrade. The research was conducted by chronologically interpreting primary sources, notably planning documents of different levels and scope, as well as studies, programs and development models for the urbanization of this territory. The research aims to decode the impact of socialist agrarian policy on the land-use in the wider metropolitan area of Belgrade, as well as the impact of the agricultural combine as a spatial, social, economic, environmental and political entity on the urban development process at different spatial levels. The research has identified four periods in the development of Third Belgrade: (1) Production of the Modernist Rural Landscape, (2) Establishment of the Self-Management Planning Framework, (3) Humanization of Environment, and (4) Post-socialist Transition and the Collapse of the Agricultural Combine. The paper demonstrates not only that environmental transformation cannot be separated from social transformation but also that they are in constant interaction and that their synergy has had a profound impact on the development of the PKB Agricultural Combine system in socialist conditions. The textuality of the modernist rural landscape confirms that an object-oriented approach is not enough to explore and interpret the landscape, but rather, we should look at the way it is socially produced through decoding the planning, institutional and policy frameworks determining the urban development of a territory