DE JURE STATELESSNESS IN SERBIA - A Critical Analysis of the Legal Framework with Regards to Combating Statelessness and the Protection of Stateless Persons

Abstract In the age of proclamation of universalism of human rights, the interrelation between citizenship and human rights still raises concerns. Statelessness, a condition of having no nationality, affects more than 12 million people worldwide causing a legal limbo in which those who are denied a political membership are deprived of access to basic human rights. Being in the shadow of refugee and migration issues, statelessness has not only been neglected on the international arena but in academia, as well. In light of political changes in Eastern Europe during the ‘90s, statelessness came into the spotlight of the international community, as thousands of people remained stateless after the collapse of the USSR and SFRY. Lacking nationality suddenly was equated with being rightless. As international law explicitly addresses the so-called “de jure statelessness” this study examines its nature, causes and effects in a national context. Hence, the compliance of Serbian legislation with its international obligations regarding the prevention and reduction of statelessness and protection of stateless persons is the subject matter of the upcoming discussion. The research explores the extent to which the law serves as mechanism for creating and combating statelessness, as well as the level of interrelation of citizenship and human rights in the given framework. The findings show that, although generally in line with international norms, the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Serbia still contains several gaps which may lead to statelessness. Moreover, an in-depth analysis indicates that rather than being a human, the requirement of one’s “lawful stay” is a prerequisite of access to citizenship and range of available rights. Finally, in lack of a statelessness determination procedure, rights otherwise guaranteed are at risk of remaining rights without right holders

Automated Fingerprint Identification System: with and without the Possibility of Correction of a Digitalised Image

According to the fact that systems for automatic processing of biometric data are constantly advancing in terms of speed and reliability, as well as in terms of adding new processing capabilities, the question of choosing the appropriate system becomes more important. In this paper the idea is to present the technical and technological solutions of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System with different operating principles, with and without the possibility of correction or coding of a digitized image. Comparisons of different systems were performed in test and production environments. The test database with 10 000 records and about half a million records of dactyloscoped persons in the production of database for testing the performance of search was used. The results have shown that there exists a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) between examined systems in face fingerprint search according to latent fingerprint databases (which means indirect verification). In the production environment, it was found that there exists statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) in the direct and indirect verification showing advantages and disadvantages of the compared systems

Undergraduate Students Perception of Improvement of Teachers Competencies Based on using Information System

The paper presents the analysis of the Information System (IS) impact on the improvement of the teachers’ skills and competences. This research is based only on students’ perceptions and survey methodology. According to the data of the research described in the paper, it is possible to investigate the correlation between students’ perception of teachers’ IT competencies and assessment of their effects on students’ achievement or teaching effectiveness. Besides, we are particularly interested in investigating the degree to which IS impacts the undergraduate students’ motivation and satisfaction in the teaching process. The impact of e-communication on gaining knowledge, monitoring, evaluation and reporting on the undergraduate students’ improvement is analysed. The paper also presents the analysis of the research results on the application of IS and its impact on gaining knowledge as well as the undergraduate students’ motivation and satisfaction increase. The model of the IS impact on the improvement of the teaching process has been presented as an important factor for directing learners towards IS application.Publishe

Efeitos da reabilitação precoce no desfecho da reabilitação pós-acidente vascular encefálico (AVE) em mulheres com mais de 65 anos e sua correlação com a gravidade do deficit neurológico inicial

Este trabalho visa examinar os efeitos da reabilitação precoce, a curto e longo prazo, no desfecho do acidente vascular encefálico (AVE) em mulheres com mais de 65 anos; estabelecer a correlação entre o impacto da gravidade do déficit neurológico na predição dos re-sultados do tratamento de Reabilitação e, ainda, investigar a possibilidade do acompanhamento de parâmetros individuais da Medição de Independência Funcional (MIF) na predição do desfecho da reabilitação do AVE. Atualmente, o AVE é a terceira maior causa de mortalidade na população mundial, bem como a maior causa de invalidez permanente. No cenário atual, as doenças cardiovasculares e cerebrovasculares - que antes eram tidas como exclusivas da população masculina – têm afetado também as mulheres. Por outro lado, observamos uma correlação linear entre o envelhecimento e a ocorrência destas doenças. Concluímos que a implantação do método de reabilitação precoce conduz a uma aceleração significativa do processo de tratamento e recuperação após o AVE em mulheres com mais de 65 anos. Concluímos também que certos parâmetros da MIF, por apresentarem o mesmo padrão de evolução, podem ser utilizados na predição da recuperação global do paciente.This study aims at verifying the effects of short- and long-term rehabilitation on the outcome of encephalic vascular accident (EVA) in women older than 65 years; establishing the correlation between the impact of the neurological deficit severity on the prediction of the rehabilitation treatment outcome as well as investigating the possibility of the follow-up of individual parameters at the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) when predicting the EVA rehabilitation outcome. The EVA is currently the third major cause of death in the world’s population, as well as the main cause of permanent disability. In the present scenario, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, which used to be observed almost exclusively in the male population, now affect the female population as well. On the other hand, we observe a linear correlation between aging and the occurrence of these diseases. We conclude that the implementation of early rehabilitation leads to a significant acceleration in the treatment and recovery process post-EVA in women older than 65 years. We also conclude that certain FIM parameters can be used to predict the patient’s overall recovery, as they present the same evolution pattern

INDUSTRIAL WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS AS A TOOL FOR REMOTE ON-LINE MANAGEMENT OF POWER TRANSFORMERS' HEATING AND COOLING PROCESS

Industrial Wireless Sensor Network used for supervising of high power transformer cooling system is presented in the paper. Due to the fact that in the thermal power plant where industrial prototype is installed is very noisy environment, a lot of problems should be solved in order to obtain high reliability and accuracy of the system. Results of the analysis presented in paper are obtained from the real thermal power plant where presented wireless sensor network based on-monitoring system is used for continuous management of power transformers’ heating and control of their cooling systems. Obtained results during system operation in longer period confirm its stability, accuracy and improvement in power plant operation

Risk factors associated with poor clinical outcome in pyogenic spinal infections : 5-years’ intensive care experience

Introduction: Management of pyogenic spinal infections (PSI) after the development of neurological deficit has not been specifically addressed in the literature. We aimed to describe real-life clinical outcomes of PSI in patients admitted to an intensive care unit with neurological deficit and identify factors associated with good prognosis. Methodology: Consecutive patients admitted to ICU with a possible diagnosis of spinal infection over five years’ period were included. Descriptive statistics were performed to examine the demographics and clinical parameters. Results: The majority (71%) of patients were male. The mean age was 57.4 years (27-79), and 71% were > 50 years old. At least one underlying risk factor was identified in 68% of the patients; the most common comorbidity was diabetes mellitus (DM). All patients have presented with fever accompanied by a neurological deficit (86%) and back pain (79%). A complete recovery was achieved in 25% of patients. However, the majority of patients had adverse outcomes with 21.4% mortality, and 43% remaining neurological sequelae. Increased age with a cut-off of 65 years and pre-existing DM were identified as being associated with poor outcome. Conclusion: Mortality among patients admitted to ICU with PSI was significantly higher than reported in the literature. The residual neurological deficit was common, one-third of patients had remaining neurological sequelae, and only one-fourth had complete recovery. Increased age and background DM were the most important determinants of poor clinical outcome. The impact of DM appears to be much more important than currently recognised in this population.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Diatom diversity and ecological status of the Lasovacka and Lenovacka streams near Zajecar: consideration of WFD implementation in Serbia

The development and improvement of the monitoring system of rivers according to the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is essential for all European states because assigning a wrong ecological status class (misclassification) to a water body can have significant economic consequences. In order to point out some of the key issues of WFD implementation in Serbia, we conducted a one-year study of the composition and abundance of diatoms in the phytobenthos in two streams, the Lasovacka and Lenovacka, in eastern Serbia. The physicochemical quality elements were also used in the assessment of their ecological status. The diatom community exhibited a higher species richness in the Lasovacka (88 taxa) than in the Lenovacka stream (63 taxa). Such a detailed study enabled us to record some of the rare taxa, e.g. Caloneis budensis in the Lasovacka, which was the first finding of this species in Serbia. The Lasovacka and Lenovacka streams were downgraded to moderate and poor ecological status, respectively, because of the high nitrogen load. Since the monitoring results based on the diatom indices resulted in the assignment of two streams to a good ecological status, the possible reason for the mismatch between the biological and physicochemical quality elements could be due to the lack of analysis of benthic invertebrate fauna or the application of diatom indices that are insufficiently sensitive to the specific environmental pressure. The results of this study show that conducting a comprehensive ecological investigation of rivers within the framework of the WFD in Serbia is urgently needed

High frequency of the R75Q CFTR variation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

AbstractWe performed the complete screening of the CFTR gene in a group of 31 patients with COPD in order to investigate the impact of mutations and polymorphisms in the CFTR gene. The cumulative frequency of CFTR mutations (17.74%) was significantly higher than in our general population (P<0.0001). The R75Q was significantly overrepresented in COPD patients (8.06%; P=0.002). In all patients carrying the R75Q chronic bronchitis was a dominant symptom of COPD, and all were homozygous for the V470 allele. These findings suggest that R75Q mutation could be characteristic CFTR variant for COPD patients