CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS TRADITIONAL SERBIAN AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD PRODUCTS

Market success depends in large part on how well consumer behaviour and perception supplies understand. They need to understand how consumers evaluate products characteristics, gather information regarding various alternatives and use this information to select specific product. The object of this research was to determine consumer perception of Serbian agricultural and food products and especially perception of home made products. In October 2008, a research was conducted in the Belgrade market on a sample of 338 persons. The results were analyzed using univariant statistical analyses. The results of this research can be used by producers for defining marketing activities and by researchers to conduct further research in this field.Traditional agricultural and food products, Territorial competitiveness, Consumers, Republic of Serbia, Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Effects of Tank Contamination and Impact of Drift-Reducing Agents on Weed Control in Response to Dicamba Applications

Availability of dicamba-tolerant (DT) crops from 2017 provided farmers with additional herbicides for weed control management in row crops. However, the technology alike this one has concerns regarding dicamba off-target movement (OTM) causing undesirable effects on sensitive vegetation. Even though dicamba has high water solubility OTM that has often been overlooked when it comes to unintended crop exposure is dicamba tank contamination. Considering the complexity of spraying equipment soybean response may be expected even when small amounts of residues are left in the spray equipment. Typically, the same field spray equipment is used to perform herbicide application through growing season there is a limited knowledge how various postemergence (POST) programs impacts soybean response when found in scenario with dicamba tank contamination and requires additional research. Furthermore, as one way to mitigate OTM potential release of DT crops was followed with registration of various agents also known as drift-reducing agents (DRAs). Increased awareness of both growers and commercial applicators to reduce unintended adjacent crops injury use of labeled DRAs in combination with drift-reduction nozzles represent common practice. Exposure of sensitive crops to sublethal doses of dicamba has been well documented over several years; however, there is limited information available how combination with commonly used DRA’s may impact application process and weed control. Considering limitations on available literature the main objective of this research were: 1) evaluate response of non-DT soybean variety when exposed to commonly applied POST herbicide program in combination without or with dicamba as tank-contaminant and 2) evaluate impact of DRAs on weed control in response to dicamba applications. The results of this research expanded knowledge and will help in education in the future management decisions about potential implications associated with common mitigation techniques used with dicamba application as well as helped with understanding how various POST herbicide program affect soybean response. Advisor: Greg R. Kruge

Ground-state properties of weakly bound helium-alkali trimers

Weakly bound triatomic molecules consisting of two helium atoms and one alkali metal atom are studied by means of the diffusion Monte Carlo method. We determined the stability of 4He2A, 4He3HeA, and 3He2A, where A is one of the alkali atoms Li, Na, K, Rb, or Cs. Some of the trimers with 3He are predicted to be self-bound for the first time, but this is observed to be dependent on the He–A interaction potential model. In addition to the ground-state energy of the trimers, we determined their density, radial, and angular distributions. Many of them are spatially very extended, which qualifies them as quantum halo statesPostprint (author's final draft

SHIFT OF CUSTOMERS’ VISITS TO FARMER MARKETS IN BELGRADE

Because of biological and physiological characteristics of products being sold at farmer markets, customers are forced to more frequent purchases compared to the other goods. In Belgrade, traditionally consumer visits farmer markets on weekend days. The basic question is what behavior patterns are nowadays regarding to this traditional purchasing days. Additionally, important is to know how farmers markets are important as a source of fresh fruits and vegetables. Research is conducted using a questionnaire with an aim to determine behavior pattern determination of farmer markets’ customers in Belgrade. The research results show that traditional structure of customers’ visits on weekends has been changed. Farmer market is still important for purchasing fresh fruit and vegetables. Frequency of visits is correlated with quantities bought per visit. Dynamics of customer visits is driven by more practical and less with traditional reasons, is treated as benchmark of farmer markets’ development as alternative food networks (AFN) medium

Ligustrum vulgare leaves and fruit extracts induce apoptosis of human leukemia cells

Background and purpose: Cytotoxic effects of Ligustrum vulgare leaves on HeLa cervical tumor cells suggested that Ligustrum vulgare extracts should be investigated as potential anticancer agents. Therefore, we examined a potential antileukemic activity of methanolic extracts of Ligustrum vulgare leaves and fruit extracts on two types of leukemia cells, MOLT-4 and JVM-13, lymphocytes isolated from the blood of 33 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients and on mononuclear leukocytes isolated from the blood of 18 healthy individuals.Material and methods: The cytotoxicity of examined extracts was measured by MTT assay and LDH activity test. The antiapoptotic potential of tested extracts was measured by Annexin V/7AAD flowcytometric assay.Results: The results showed that both extracts exhibited a moderate cytotoxic effect on all three types of leukemia cells. The Ligustrum vulgare leaf extract was the most effective on MOLT-4 cells, the fruit extract on JVM-13 cells and both extracts were equally effective on CLL cells. In addition, none of the tested extracts was toxic to healthy mononuclear cells. Both extracts acted by inducing apoptosis of leukemic cells.Conclusion: Ligustrum vulgare extracts exhibit significant antileukemic potential and should be further investigated