Low motivation and unawareness in small farmers as an obstacle for implementation of the EU pig welfare rules

Using semi-structured interviews, Croatian pig farmers and institutional stakeholders were asked about their intentions to improve pig welfare, future perspectives, opinions and communication efforts on the EU pig welfare directives. While full-time family farmers (FFF) and employees at farm enterprises (EFE) expressed interest in improving pig welfare on their farms as a prerequisite for increasing competitiveness in the future, part-time family farmers (PFF) were not interested in pig welfare because they did not want to increase productivity and feared for their existence. Communication between institutional stakeholders and FFF with more than ten sows is best stablished, whereas communication with EFE is more via private consultants and communication with PFF is lacking. As Croatia is today counting over 85% farms as production units with up to 10 sows covering 75% of whole pig production, these results represent considerably important indicators of necessity to approach this population of farmers

Harmonization of welfare standards for the protection of pigs with the EU-rules: the case of Croatia

Three quarters of Croatian pigs are produced in small production units (1-5 sows) and on family farms with mixed farming activities. Only few farms have specialized production units with up-to-date technologies and comply with EU standards. The future competitiveness of Croatian pig production is therefore questionable unless production systems are changing. Modernisation will most probably result in the expansion and intensification of larger farms and the termination of a great number of small farms. The aim of this study was to investigate how the welfare of pigs on Croatian farms would be affected by modernisation. Seventeen Croatian pig farmers were interviewed to describe the different pig production systems, while the welfare of pigs was assessed using resource-based and animal-based welfare indicators. Three production systems were distinguished: part-time family farms (PFF), full-time family farms (FFF) and farm enterprises (FE). Resources-based welfare indicators were investigated in 17 pens located on seven PFF, 25 pens distributed across six FFF and seven pens were visited at two FE. Animal-based welfare indicators were assessed on 21 pigs at PFF, 90 pigs at FFF and 18 pigs at FE. The study demonstrated that different production systems have different welfare problems. Based on resource-based indicators pig welfare was better ensured on FE, but based on animal-based indicators there was no clear difference in welfare between the three production systems. Based on these findings is it unlikely that the modernisation of current production systems in Croatia will significantly improve pig welfare. From a welfare point of view, neither the enlargement nor the termination of pig farms can be supported. However, the number of farms involved in this study was too small to allow for generalisation. The case-study does, however, point at the importance of further studies into the specific welfare problems of each of the production-systems and their different solutions. These studies should be of larger scale in order to get a representative picture of pig welfare in Croatia, and its assurance within the process of modernisation

Person- and People-Centered Integrated Health Care for Alcohol Dependence – Whether It Is Real in the Present Moment

Alcohol continues to occupy a leading position in Europe as a popular substance of abuse. Together with cigarette smoking and obesity, alcohol is a major cause of preventable diseases. Harmful use of alcohol is one of the main factors contributing to premature deaths and disability and has a major impact on public health. The consequences of alcohol use on human health are enormous. Additionally, alcohol use can have harmful effects that do not directly affect the person who consumes alcohol (e.g. fetal alcohol syndrome, violations that are related to alcohol use…)Also, the harmful effects and consequences of alcohol use (e.g. acute and chronic illness, injuries in fights, at the workplace, in traffic, violent behavior, and death) create a great burden for the economic development of a society.Unfortunately, confirmed alcoholics that are still drinking are unlikely to be given a life insurance cover. On the other hand, if a person is now a recovering alcoholic with a considerable abstinence period, he/she may hope to get a good life insurance quote. Usually, a year or two is believed to be an adequate amount of time for a person to get a life insurance cover at an average price. However, this is only possible if the alcohol did not cause serious health issues to the person. Furthermore, relapsing after impatient rehabilitation can be viewed as an aggravating factor to get a life insurance.So far the research focused on the effects on the population level, such as the increase in taxes, advertising bans and the implementation of laws that prevent the use of alcohol in traffic. However, it seems that the problem may be viewed at the individual level.In any case, models of treatment should be tailored to the needs of the individual. These models should incorporate the reduction of alcohol intake, but also the path to abstinence. The plan should take into account the different (individual) needs for treatment, with regard to the degree of alcohol dependence and health status, but also include the needs of the family, community and broader society

Dejavniki vplivanja na uspešnost reševanja strogo geometrijskega problema pri učencih med 14. in 15. letom starosti

This paper investigates and considers factors that affect success in solving a stand-alone geometrical problem by 182 students of the 7th and 8th grades of elementary school. The starting point for consideration is a geometrical task from the National Secondary School Leaving Exam in Croatia (State Matura), utilising elementary-level geometry concepts. The task was presented as a textual problem with an appropriate drawing and a task within a given context. After data processing, the key factors affecting the process of problem solving were singled out: visualisation skills, detection and connection of concepts, symbolic notations, and problem-solving culture. The obtained results are the basis of suggestions for changes in the geometry teaching-learning process. (DIPF/Orig.

THE ANALYSIS OF ANTIBIOTIC CONSUMPTION WITHIN THE TERTIARY HEALTHCARE INSTITUTION IN SERBIA DURING 10-YEAR PERIOD (2001-2010)

Objective: To present conclusions related to the antibiotic drug consumption in one tertiary healthcare institution in Serbia in a 10-year period (2001-2010).Methods: It has been analyzed the issue of antibiotics for prevention and treatment of patients hospitalized at the Military Medical Academy between 2001 and 2010. Antibiotic consumption was expressed as a number of Defined Daily Doses per 100 bed-days (DDD/100BD).Results: Total antibiotic consumption ranged from 49.6 DDD/100BD in 2001 up to 60.4 DDD/100BD in 2005. The leading group of antibiotic was third-generation cephalosporins which accounted for 15.1 DDD/100BD of its maximum consumption in 2007. Ceftriaxone was the most frequently used.Conclusion: Analysis of antibiotic consumption, and multidisciplinary approach, has a crucial importance for further survey of protocols compliance concerning the antibiotic consumption in one hospital.Keywords: Antibiotics, Hospital consumption, ATC, DDD, Bacterial resistance

Legislative Compliance Assessment: Framework, Model and GDPR Instantiation

Legislative compliance assessment tools are commonly used by companies to help them to understand their legal obligations. One of the primary limitations of existing tools is that they tend to consider each regulation in isolation. In this paper, we propose a flexible and modular compliance assessment framework that can support multiple legislations. Additionally, we describe our extension of the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) so that it can be used not only to represent digital rights but also legislative obligations, and discuss how the proposed model is used to develop a flexible compliance system, where changes to the obligations are automatically reflected in the compliance assessment tool. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach through the development of a General Data Protection Regulatory model and compliance assessment too

Bioreactor-Based Bone Tissue Engineering

The aim of this chapter is to describe the main issues of bone tissue engineering. Bone transplants are widely used in orthopedic, plastic and reconstructive surgery. Current technologies like autologous and allogenic transplantation have several disadvantages making them relatively unsatisfactory, like donor site morbidity, chronic pain, and immunogenicity and risk hazard from infectious disease. Therefore, regenerative orthopedics seeks to establish a successful protocol for the healing of severe bone damage using engineered bone grafts. The optimization of protocols for bone graft production using autologous mesenchymal stem cells loaded on appropriate scaffolds, exposed to osteogenic inducers and mechanical force in bioreactor, should be able to solve the current limitations in managing bone injuries. We discuss mesenchymal stem cells as the most suitable cell type for bone tissue engineering. They can be isolated from a variety of mesenchymal tissues and can differentiate into osteoblasts when given appropriate mechanical support and osteoinductive signal. Mechanical support can be provided by different cell scaffolds based on natural or synthetic biomaterials, as well as combined composite materials. Three-dimensional support is enabled by bioreactor systems providing several advantages as mechanical loading, homogeneous distribution of cells and adequate nutrients/waste exchange. We also discuss the variety of osteoinductive signals that can be applied in bone tissue engineering. The near future of bone healing and regeneration is closely related to advances in tissue engineering. The optimization of protocols of bone graft production using autologous mesenchymal stem cells loaded on appropriate scaffolds, exposed to osteogenic inducers and mechanical force in bioreactor, should be able to solve the current limitations in managing bone injuries

Response of soybean and barley to Fertdolomite application on acid soil

The stationary field experiment with the application of granulated dolomite (MgCO3 x CaCO3) enriched with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (Fertdolomite: 24.0 % CaO + 16.0 % MgO + 3.0 % N + 2.5 % P2O5 + 3.0 % K2O) in rates 0, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 t ha-1 on standard fertilization was started on 13th November 2007 on the acid soil (pH in 1n KCl: 3.90). The trial was conducted by randomized block design in four replicates (basic plot 40 m2). Standard fertilization of trial was applied in the next years for crops in rotation. In this study the response of soybean (2010) and winter barley (2012/2013) was shown. The average grain yield of soybean was 4830 kg ha-1 with variation among the treatments ranging from 4341 to 5361 kg ha-1. At the rates 10 t ha-1 and 20 t ha-1 soybean yields were significant increased for 8% and 16%, respectively and additionally by 6% at the highest rate of fertolomite. Fertdolomite had a moderate positive effect on protein contents in grain, while oil content was independent on the treatments. The average grain yield of barley was quite low (3630 kg ha-1), mainly due to low ears density (average 493 per m2) which was affected by oversupplies of precipitation in winter period under less permeable soil conditions. Extreme variations of precipitation regime are in connection with climatic change. Due to the application of 10 and 20 t ha-1 of Fertdolomite, yields of barley were significantly increased by 20% and 34%,respectively. However, the rates of 40 t ha-1 showed a non-significant difference of the barley yield as compared to the control level. The ear densities were significantly increased by application ≥ 10 t ha-1 Fertdolomite rates. Improvement of soil status by liming, adequate fertilization and similar managements contribute to the alleviation of detrimental effects of soil limitations and recent climate change on field crop yields