CORPORATE GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN RELATION TO THE ESG REPORTING

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility in business. The idea has evolved from CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) to ESG Reporting (Environment, Social, Governance), with the latest trends developing towards a green transition. This genesis of development has been followed by corporate practice and legislation at European and national levels. Consequently, ESG and Green Transition guidelines have been incorporated into the liabilities and duties of the management and supervisory bodies of the company, resulting in a new view of the performance of these functions and their accountability. In this paper, the authors outline the basic postulates and roles of corporate governance bodies and their respective responsibilities for the implementation of ESG and the Green Transition. Sustainability as a value is highlighted in the EU and companies are committed to respecting human rights and reducing their impact on the planet. However, progress by companies (corporates) in integrating sustainability into their governance processes, in particular human rights and environmental due diligence, is still slow, and progress is visible with the drafting of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDD) as a follow-up to the Directive 2014/95/EU (NFRD). The new rules are intended to provide companies with legal certainty and a level playing field. It should provide greater transparency for consumers and investors and should accelerate the green transition and protect human rights in Europe and beyond. These tasks are directly linked to the responsibilities of the authorities in society, who will have to respect these rules and be held accountable for failing to enforce them or for failing to achieve a transfer of capital to the green transition

Serological monitoring of ornitobacteriosis in broilers in South Banat district

Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale is a relatively recently discovered bacterium and its role in the pathology of avian respiratory infections has not yet been clarified. Since there was no data relating to the prevalence of this infection in Serbia at the time of carrying out our investigations, we decided to explore the prevalence of the infection in broilers and its influence on clinical manifestations at the selected apizootiological area with developed poultry industry. A total of 430 blood samples from 26 flocks of broilers of different ages, from five municipalities were taken for examination. The serum samples were tested by ELISA for the presence of specific antibodies to the agent. Epizootiological investigation was carried out based on the results obtained with serological testing and epizootiological data, collected from the farms. The data were analyzed statistically to identify association between the infection and manifestation of clinical symptoms by Fisher’s exact test. Seropositive chickens were detected in 16 out of 26 examined broiler flocks at the age of 3 to 56 days. The percentage of seropositive samples per flock was 5-30%. The titer values of specific antibodies ranged from 946 to 6886. Serological response to O. rhinotracheale was evidenced in five flocks which had clinical symptoms in the form of respiratory tract disorders or stunting. However, specific antibodies against the agent were discovered in 11 flocks which did not show clinical symptoms. Statistical analysis revealed no association between the presence of infection and the appearance of clinical symptoms (p = 0.1213). The results are in agreement with those of other authors who investigated the prevalence of this infection and its manifestations in other countries. The present investigation determined indirectly, serologically a presence of O. rhinotracheale in the majority of examined broiler flocks (61,54%) and a small average number of individual seropositive chickens per flock - 10 % of all examined samples. Although O. rhinotracheale is wide-spread in intensive broiler production in South Banat its presence does not always lead to clinical manifestation of respiratory tract disorders. Seropositive chickens are detected in the first week of life, which indicates the presence of maternal antibodies. Presence of antibodies as the response of organism to the natural infection is detected in chickens after four weeks of age

Analiza odabranih markera glioblastroma

Glioblastomas (GBM) represent one of the most aggressive types of diffuse glioma. Although they usually arise as primary brain tumors, in 10% of GBM cases, they develop from low-grade astrocytomas (secondary GBM). They express striking morphological heterogeneity, which is often encountered during a histopathological examination. Due to advances in molecular diagnostics, significant progress was made in understanding the pathogenesis of tumor growth and the development of personalized therapeutic protocols. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive properties of the selected markers -IDH1/2 (isocitrate-dehydrogenase 1 and 2) mutation and MGMT (O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase) and CHI3L1 (Chitinase-3-like protein 1) methylation status of the promoter regions in a Serbian population of GBM patients. Patients operated on the Neurosurgery Clinic (The University Clinical Centre of Niš, Serbia) between 2013 and 2019 were included in this study. Sanger direct sequencing was used to detect the presence of IDH1/2 mutations in samples and conventional and Real-Time methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction methods for methylation status evaluation. Age, the extent of tumor resection, and type of adjuvant chemotherapy were recognized as independent prognostic factors in GBM patients. Furthermore, results suggested the superiority of adjuvant Temozolomide over adjuvant chemotherapy with a nitrosourea-based protocol (PCV and BCNU). IDH1 mutation was detected in 6.67% (3/45) of patients and was associated with more prolonged overall survival, younger age, and hypermethylation of the MGMT and CHI3L1 promoter. Semi-quantitative MSP approaches resulted in improved detection sensitivity of MGMT methylation status compared to the qualitative MSP method. Among IDH-wt homogenous cohort of GBM patients older than 50 years with complete/partial resection of the tumor, overall survival of patients harboring highly methylated MGMT was significantly longer in comparison with the unmethylated group. Complementary evaluation of CHI3L1 promoter methylation status potentially increases the prognostic value of the MGMT methylation status, which should be further investigated in more comprehensive research

Development for CO2 emissions reduction by the use of solar thermal collectors in the process of urban planning

Using RES is one of the most important characteristics of the sustainable and resilient development. Nowadays, need to minimize CO2 emissions is obligatory, especially in the sector of urban and architectural planning, since in Serbia approximately 50% of produced energy is spent in buildings. The CO2 emission, in urban structures, can and must be reduced at the different levels: building level, block, and city level. For the city of Kragujevac, based on urban parameters defined in General Urban Plan, typical urban block was chosen and typical building structure developed. Calculation were made, based on recommendations developed by the Ministry of mining and energy and Serbian regulations, for the energy needed for domestic hot water preparation. In this paper, the influences of architectural and urban parameters on the use of solar thermal collectors at the typical building and urban block level is investigated. Recommendations are prepared for principles of urban and architectural design in order to enable the use of collectors for domestic hot water preparation and in that way CO2 emission reduction. Developed methodology for the city of Kragujevac can be applied in defining design principles in whole the country and Balkans region, not only for the use of solar thermal collectors but also for the use of other RES

DETERMINING THE IMPACTS OF FREIGHT TRANSPORT MODE COMBINATIONS ON AIR POLLUTION USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Transport is one of the largest emitters of harmful substances that affect air quality. Each combination of freight transport modes has a different volume and at the same time has a differentiated negative impact on air quality. That is why the European Union has been making special efforts for many years to create and implement strategies aimed at improving air quality. The main goal of this paper is to present a methodology that enables quantification and analysis of the impact of each freight transport mode combination on air quality using feed-forward neural networks. The developed model uses the parameters of the EU member states in the period from 2000 to 2014. In addition to the scientific and practical contribution, the development of the model provides a good basis for the universal platform formation in order to create and develop strategies, i.e. measures to improve air quality on a global level

Certified Defenses: Why Tighter Relaxations May Hurt Training

Certified defenses based on convex relaxations are an established technique for training provably robust models. The key component is the choice of relaxation, varying from simple intervals to tight polyhedra. Paradoxically, however, training with tighter relaxations can often lead to worse certified robustness. The poor understanding of this paradox has forced recent state-of-the-art certified defenses to focus on designing various heuristics in order to mitigate its effects. In contrast, in this paper we study the underlying causes and show that tightness alone may not be the determining factor. Concretely, we identify two key properties of relaxations that impact training dynamics: continuity and sensitivity. Our extensive experimental evaluation demonstrates that these two factors, observed alongside tightness, explain the drop in certified robustness for popular relaxations. Further, we investigate the possibility of designing and training with relaxations that are tight, continuous and not sensitive. We believe the insights of this work can help drive the principled discovery of new and effective certified defense mechanisms

Influential Factors in the Loading of the Axial Bearing of the Slewing Platform Drive in Hydraulic Excavators

The paper contains the results of the analysis of factors that influence the loading of the axial bearing of the slewing platform drive mechanism in hydraulic excavators. The following influential factors are considered: the operations of the excavator manipulation tasks, the number of drives in the slewing platform mechanism, and the configuration of the excavator kinematic chain. The importance of the influence of these factors is assessed on the basis of the comparison between certain equivalent loads of the platform drive bearing with the diagrams of allowed load capacities of available bearings. The equivalent loads of the platform drive mechanism bearing are determined using the approach of static and dynamic excavator simulation in the programs developed on the basis of the defined mathematical models of the excavator. The equivalent loads are given with regard to the duration of the manipulation task and in the form of a spectrum of equivalent loads determined in the entire operating area of the excavator. The analysis is performed for three different configurations of the kinematic chain of a tracked hydraulic excavator with the mass of around 100000 kg

THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS OF POLLUTANTS MEASUREMENTS IN AMBIENT AIR MEASURED WITH MEASURING STATIONS „AIRPOINTER“

Abstract: Measurements of pollutants in the ambient air are made with different devices and by using different methods. In order to determine the representativeness of the measurements results are performed inter-laboratory comparisons. This paper presents the results of an inter-laboratory test of NO, NO2, NOx, O3 and PM10 concentrations, which are measured by the automated measuring stations “Airpointer” at the measuring point city stadium “Sloboda" in Užice in the period of time: 11th to 17th February 2014. Keywords: pollutants, measuring station "Airpointer", comparative analisys of the result