Concept of the green spaces system – Belgrade case study

Contemporary approach to urban development, founded on sustainable development principles, is counting on urban green spaces system as one of the most significant city infrastructure. The term implies integration of multifunctional open spaces – various types of green spaces, water courses and open rural areas, distributed in such a way to contribute to improvement of life and working conditions in the city, to protection of biodiversities of urban sites and to the attractiveness of city vista (Teofilović, Cvejić, et al.; 2009). The city of Belgrade is the capital of the Republic of Serbia, situated in South-East Europe in Balkan peninsula. According to the population census from 2002, the population of the inner city territory was 1.326.872. The City is situated at the confluence of the two big rivers, Sava and Danube. The surroundings of Belgrade consists of the two different natural entities: Pannonia lowlands in the North and Šumadija upland in the South. The expressed relief plasticity of Belgrade in the South of the Sava and Danube, conditioned the spreading of the City across hilly terrain. In the North of the Sava and Danube are alluvial plains and loess plateau, separated by a steep loess section, to 30 meters high. Due to the position of Belgrade in the contact zone of the two highly contrasted natural entities, a great variety of vegetative biocenosis of flora and fauna exists. Urban planning in Belgrade have had a long and rich tradition since 1842, when the first plan of the City was adopted. The development of the green spaces system of Belgrade went on side by side with the urban planning of the City. The basic concept of establishment of the green spaces system, by connection of the city center and its housing areas via alleys and corridors of greenery with the City surroundings, has not been substantially modified in the up-to-date urban plans. Nevertheless, that idealistic vision of the integral system of the City green spaces, present in plans, has not been realized up till now. On the contrary, occupations and irregular changes of land use for the spaces marked in plans for greenery are more and more often present. From the point of view which is based on the interests of investors, green spaces of Belgrade are primarily an unbuilt land, meaning potentially available and variously attractive and profitable land resource. This is especially prevailing under condition of a weak control of constructions, inadequate legal regulations and flexible interpretation of the existent plans, enabling multiple manipulations in distribution of construction sites (Djukanović, 1994). On the other hand, the strategic choice that Belgrade should be planned on sustainability principles, asks for a different relation towards the green spaces system of the City. That was the reason why the Secretariat for Environmental Protection of Belgrade initiated elaboration of the project „Green Regulations of Belgrade“ (Teofilović, Cvejić, et al.; 2003). Three stages of the project has been completed up till now, and its ultimate goal is, besides determining of an adequate legal regulations, design of a special urban plan of the green spaces system of Belgrade (coming stage four). As significant stages of the project „Green regulations of Belgrade“, from the standpoint of the final goal, might be highlighted: Mapping and Evaluation of biotopes of Belgrade (Teofilović, Cvejić, et al.; 2007) and design of the „Program for elaboration of the urban plan of the green spaces system of Belgrade“ (Teofilović, Cvejić, et al.; 2009). This work is aiming to present the new concept of the green spaces system of Belgrade defined in mentioned projects and based on the detailed and multiannual analysis, estimations and research, as well as on GIS, biotopes of Belgrade data

Mechanisms of fate decision and lineage commitment during haematopoiesis.

Blood stem cells need to both perpetuate themselves (self-renew) and differentiate into all mature blood cells to maintain blood formation throughout life. However, it is unclear how the underlying gene regulatory network maintains this population of self-renewing and differentiating stem cells and how it accommodates the transition from a stem cell to a mature blood cell. Our current knowledge of transcriptomes of various blood cell types has mainly been advanced by population-level analysis. However, a population of seemingly homogenous blood cells may include many distinct cell types with substantially different transcriptomes and abilities to make diverse fate decisions. Therefore, understanding the cell-intrinsic differences between individual cells is necessary for a deeper understanding of the molecular basis of their behaviour. Here we review recent single-cell studies in the haematopoietic system and their contribution to our understanding of the mechanisms governing cell fate choices and lineage commitment.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/icb.2015.9

Application of single-cell RNA sequencing methodologies in understanding haematopoiesis and immunology.

The blood and immune system are characterised by utmost diversity in its cellular components. This heterogeneity can solely be resolved with the application of single-cell technologies that enable precise examination of cell-to-cell variation. Single-cell transcriptomics is continuously pushing forward our understanding of processes driving haematopoiesis and immune responses in physiological settings as well as in disease. Remarkably, in the last five years, a number of studies involving single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) allowed the discovery of new immune cell types and revealed that haematopoiesis is a continuous rather than a stepwise process, thus challenging the classical haematopoietic lineage tree model. This review summarises the most recent studies which applied scRNA-seq to answer outstanding questions in the fields of haematology and immunology and discusses the present challenges and future directions.The study was supported by Cancer Research UK grant number C45041/A14953 and European Research Council project 677501 – ZF_Bloo

Effect of two behavioural 'nudging' interventions on management decisions for low back pain: A randomised vignette-based study in general practitioners

Objective €Nudges' are subtle cognitive cues thought to influence behaviour. We investigated whether embedding nudges in a general practitioner (GP) clinical decision support display can reduce low-value management decisions. Methods Australian GPs completed four clinical vignettes of patients with low back pain. Participants chose from three guideline-concordant and three guideline-discordant (low-value) management options for each vignette, on a computer screen. A 2×2 factorial design randomised participants to two possible nudge interventions: €partition display' nudge (low-value options presented horizontally, high-value options listed vertically) or €default option' nudge (high-value options presented as the default, low-value options presented only after clicking for more). The primary outcome was the proportion of scenarios where practitioners chose at least one of the low-value care options. Results 120 GPs (72% male, 28% female) completed the trial (n=480 vignettes). Participants using a conventional menu display without nudges chose at least one low-value care option in 42% of scenarios. Participants exposed to the default option nudge were 44% less likely to choose at least one low-value care option (OR 0.56, 95%CI 0.37 to 0.85; p=0.006) compared with those not exposed. The partition display nudge had no effect on choice of low-value care (OR 1.08, 95%CI 0.72 to 1.64; p=0.7). There was no interaction between the nudges (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.41 to 2.15; p=0.89). Interpretation A default option nudge reduced the odds of choosing low-value options for low back pain in clinical vignettes. Embedding high value options as defaults in clinical decision support tools could improve quality of care. More research is needed into how nudges impact clinical decision-making in different contexts

Changes in the balance between proliferation and apoptosis during the progression of malignancy in thyroid tumours

The aim of this study was to gain better insight into molecular changes which reflect disturbances in the balance between proliferation and apoptosis during progression of thyroid malignancy from papillary microcarcinoma (PMC) via clinically manifest papillary carcinoma (PTC) to anaplastic carcinoma (ATC). The apoptosis related molecules (Bcl-2, Bax) and proliferation related marker (PCNA) were analysed immunohistochemically in 120 archival cases comprising PMC (n=34), PTC (n=52) and ATC (n=34). In addition, in situ apoptotic cell death was analysed by the TUNEL method. The average Bcl-2 staining score did not differ between PMC and PTC (p>0.05), but was significantly lower in ATC (p<0.05).The Bax score was higher in PTCs and ATCs than in PMCs (p<0.05). Due to these changes, the Bcl-2/Bax ratio showed a marked decrease from PMC to ATC (p<0.05), while proliferation activity increased significantly from PTC to ATC (p<0.05). Despite high Bax expression, the rate of apoptotic cell death was low in the investigated carcinomas, especially in ATC, i.e. the increase in proliferative activity was not counterbalanced with appropriate cell death. Differences were found in the expression of apoptotic molecules (Bcl-2 and Bax), their ratio (Bcl-2 /Bax) and in the rate of apoptotic cell death and proliferative activity between PMC, PTC and ATC, indicating that disturbances in the balance between apoptosis and proliferation, in favour of the latter, occur gradually during the progression of malignancy in thyroid tumours