Vinča-Belo Brdo, a late neolithic site in Serbia consideration of the macro-botanical remains as indicators of dietary habits

The analysis of macro-botanical remains from the late Neolithic site of Vinča-Belo Brdo has provided first information on the range of crops and wild plants present at the site, and revealed their potential role as foodstuffs. The abundance and distribution of certain plant taxa across different archaeological deposits suggests to what extent they were used within the settlement. The analyzed plant remains also offer insight into the types of food consumed by Vinča residents and serve as a basis for inferring the seasonality and method of food provision/production and activities related to plant use. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177012: Society, spiritual and material culture and communications in prehistory and early history of the Balkans

Synthesis and characterization of poly (ε-caprolactone) / selenium nanoparticles biocomposite

Ova doktorska disertacija predstavlja multidisciplinarno istraživanje u okviru kojeg su utvrđeni optimalni uslovi sinteze sfernih čestica poli (ε-kaprolaktona) (PCL-a) sa inkorporiranim, sintetisanim nanočesticama selena; izvršena je detaljna karakterizacija novodobijenog biokompozita različitim metodama fizičkohemijske analize; i ispitana su biološka svojstva značajna za njegovu potencijalnu primenu. Istraživanja su realizovana kroz tri faze...This doctoral dissertation represents a multidisciplinary study in which optimal synthesis conditions of poly-(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) spherical particles with incorporated selenium nanoparticles were determined, comprehensive characterization of obtained systems by various physicochemical methods was conducted and investigations of biological properties significant for the potential application of this biocomposite material were performed. In order to complete these tasks investigations were carried out into three consequent stages..

Ibrahim-Alemdâr Pinjo, Jeftan Kovačević and the Sarajevan export commerce via Dubrovnik (ca 1824 — 1825)

U radu se, metodom ekonomske mikrohistorije, analizira jedno pismo sarajevskog prvaka Ibrahim-alemdâra Pinja, koje se može datovati ili u 1824. ili u 1825. godinu. Tim pismom Pinjo preporučuje sarajevskog pravoslavnog trgovca Jeftana Kovačevića, rodom Mostarca, carinicima u osmanskoj carinarnici i zakupcima te carine Resulbegovićima da naprave povlastice Jeftanu u izvozu zečine preko dubrovačke luke. Pored osvrta na stanje očuvanosti i proučenosti osmanskih ličnih, porodičnih i privatnih arhiva u BiH, daje se kritičko izdanje osmanskog originala pisma i komentarisani prevod istog na bosanski/srpski/hrvatski jezik. U okviru boljeg razumijevanja izvora, dat je pregled biografije Pinjove i Kovačevićeve. Istražena je ekonomska, politička i društvena uloga janičara u Sarajevu u prve tri decenije XIX vijeka, kao i fenomen pravoslavnih trgovačkih dijasporâ porijeklom iz Bosne i Hercegovine u istom periodu. Rad se osvrće na izradu, trgovinu i izvoz krznenih sirovina, poluproizvoda i gotovih predmeta u Bosni i na Balkanu u XVIII i XIX vijeku. Posebno je prikazan promet zečinom i mjesto Bosne u premodernoj globalnoj razmjeni te značaju bosanskih sirovina za evropsku proizvodnju filca i šeširâ (1550 — 1880). Sistem unutrašnjih i vanjskih carina u osmanskoj Bosni te mjesto tog sistema u prometu bosanskim krznom su, isto tako, predmet rada. Pokazuje se da Dubrovnik, i poslije pada Republike, ostaje važna izvozna luka za Bosnu i Hercegovinu.In this paper it is analysed using the methods of the economic microhistory a letter written by a notable from Sarajevo, certain Ibrahim-alemdâr Pinjo. The letter is datable either in 1824 or in 1825. In his letter, Pinjo was recommending a Serbian-Orthodox merchant from Sarajevo, Jeftan Kovačević, originally native of Mostar in Hercegovina. The addressees of recommendation were the custom officers of the Trebinje custom-house lead by the revenue farmers of that custom-house: a Muslim notable family from the border town of Trebinje, the Resulbegovićes. Pinjo was seeking for a special treatment on behalf of Jeftan Kovačević who was exporting hare skins via the port of Dubrovnik. The paper provides review of the state of preservation and research of the Ottoman personal, family, and private archives in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The critical edition of the Ottoman original is provided, accompanied by Bosnian translation. For the purpose of the better understanding of the source, the biographies of both Pinjo and Kovačević are added. The paper dwells upon the economic, political , and social role of the janissaries in Sarajevo during the first three decades of the 19th century. Also the paper is devoted to the phenomenon of the Serbian Orthodox merchant diasporas from Bosnia and Hercegovina during the very same period. Another subject treated in paper were the Bosnian and Balkan production, commerce and export of the raw fur and skins, of their semi-products as well as of their final products. Those questions are especially illustrated using the traffic of zečina (hare skins). The role of Bosnia in the premodern global exchange was reviewed as well as the importance of the Bosnian raw materials for the European production of both felt and hats (1550 — 1880). Equally, the Ottoman system of the internal and international customs in Bosnia together with the role of that system in the traffic with the Bosnian fur and skins are dwelt upon. It is shown that Dubrovnik even after the fall of the independent Republic (the fall took place in phases: 1806, 1808. 1814 — 1815) – pace the declinist paradigm in the ex-Yugoslav historiographies – continued to be an important international export port, especially for Bosnia and Hercegovina

Selenium nanoparticles as a potential candidate in cancer treatment

The broad spectrum of selenium applications in pharmacy and medicine has been known for a while and strongly depends on its chemical form, size and shape. However, the use of Se often requires consumption over the long period, so the toxicity of Se is always a crucial concern. Majority of available pharmaceutical products contain organic forms of selenium or its salts, but recently, when it comes to cancer treatment, elemental selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have emerged as a novel selenium source with the advantage of reduced risk of selenium toxicity, but with same bioavailability and efficacy in increasing the activities of selenoenzimes. In this work we are presenting the fast, reproducible method for producing stable colloidal suspension of amorphous SeNPs (<80 nm). These SeNPS were successful incorporated within PCL microspheres by combining the high speed homogenization and the precipitation in a solvent/non-solvent system. The obtained PCL/SeNPs were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal analysis methods (TGA-DTA). The cytotoxicity and the formation of intracellular reactive oxygen species of SeNPs as well as of PCL/SeNPs were investigated employing 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and using a fluorescent probe (DCFDA test) respectively. Both systems have shown good biocompatibility. The anticancer activity of SeNPs was examined on the HeLa cell line and it was demonstrated that SeNPs exhibits strong, a dose dependent, anticancer activity by preventing further HeLa cells growth and division. Bearing in mind that PCL is well known biodegradable polymer with low degradation rate, it is our opinion that PCL/SeNPs possess a great potential for cancer treatment

Participation of employees in the making of marketing decisions in enterprises in Serbia

Contemporary approaches to the analysis of business activities of modern organizational systems are focusing on human resources and considering them the most important property. Participation of employees in the decision-making process contributes to the improvement of company's performances, and also to the satisfaction and motivation of employees. Objective of this research paper is to point out to the significance of employees' participation in the making of strategic decisions in an enterprise and to examine the share of employees in the making of marketing decisions in Serbia's economy. Through empirical analysis presented in this work, we analyzed the level of involvement of employees in the process of making marketing decisions through the presentation of their attitudes depending on their personal characteristics, type of organization and their position in the organization. The results obtained say that there is room for increasing the level of employees' involvement in the process of making marketing decisions, as well as the influence of age and hierarchical positions on the possibility of influencing the decision-making process

Small and Medium Towns of Central Serbia - Standpoints and Assumptions on Development Perspectives

The role of lower‐order urban centres in national and regional development constitutes an important subject of debate. In the field of contemporary urban research, small and medium‐sized towns are gaining importance because they build a very important link between big cities and rural areas. Obviously, “small” and “medium” generally refers to the size in terms of population of the towns. However, these are highly subjective qualifications, whose concrete meaning depends on the considered national urban system. As the official statistics in Serbia does not recognise categorisation of urban settlements on small, medium or big, for the purposes of analyses presented in this Monograph we have adopted the conditional categorisation of urban settlements in Central Serbia, which corresponds to categorisation applied in some previous research on small and medium‐sized towns of the post‐World War II Serbia. Attention was paid to development of these settlements in Central Serbia in the two periods: 1948‐1981 and 1981‐2002, since they are marked by different socio‐economic aspects of urbanisation. A body of work in this Monograph treats demographic and economic changes which featured Serbian urban settlements of different categories especially in the period 1948‐1981 (primary urbanisation process) when rural‐to‐urban migrations were mostly expressed, and when small towns in particular were the first “dam” for rural emigrants flows. Although it may seam at first glance that the urban settlements’ distribution in the settlement network of Central Serbia has been satisfactory, the discord between the number of inhabitants in Belgrade as the capital city and other urban settlements points to the issue of sharp division between the centre and the periphery. Small and medium‐sized towns of Central Serbia marked a noticeable population growth in the period of the primary urbanisation, but most of all they had the fastest rate of GNP growth and very high employment rates. However, starting with the economic downturn of the country in the 1990s, when a significant concentration of political and economic power happened in Belgrade, many of these settlements have gone through stagnation. It has to be stressed that as in other countries, a number of smaller and particularly medium‐sized towns of Central Serbia have strong roots in the secondary sector which has particularly suffered because of present global and national economy conditions. In such context the question is why do we take an interest in small and medium‐sized towns now or why at all? Firstly, the renewed interest in these urban settlements in Serbia as in other European countries is that, despite being neglected in the past, they are perceived to play quite different roles along the continuum from centre to periphery. With this in view, it is important to clarify the diversity of roles that small and medium sized towns have in relation to their surroundings. Many of them may seem insignificant at a European or even at a national level, whereas at regional and local level they may be of reasonably large importance, like centres in more remote, rural, mountain and peripheral areas. The role might differ regarding the geographical context of a town (being linked with a big city, or part of a functional cluster of small and medium‐sized towns, or the only urban settlement in a region); the economic performance; the function and size of the town; or other aspects, e.g. accessibility or specialisation in certain sector of activity. The knowledge of the role of small and medium‐sized towns needs to be explored to a much larger degree in order to formulate adequate policy recommendations – both at EU and national level, which on one hand can support existing positive development and on the other hand can assist small and medium‐sized towns in decline in diverting present negative development trends. Small and medium‐sized towns of Central Serbia have a potential to become sustainable, but only if urban networks are developed between these smaller urbanities and also among them and bigger cities. In other words, a key factor for the future existence and development of these towns is cooperation and new and more efficient types of governance and urban policy. This work aims to offer an incentive for further research on small and medium-sized towns in our country by provision of fundamental theses requiring more thorough investigation in particular contexts.IAUS Monograph No. 55, November 2007

Synthesis and characterization of poly (e-kaprolakton) / selenium nanoparticles biocomposite.

Ova doktorska disertacija predstavlja multidisciplinarno istraživanje u okviru kojeg su utvrđeni optimalni uslovi sinteze sfernih čestica poli (ε-kaprolaktona) (PCL-a) sa inkorporiranim, sintetisanim nanočesticama selena; izvršena je detaljna karakterizacija novodobijenog biokompozita različitim metodama fizičkohemijske analize; i ispitana su biološka svojstva značajna za njegovu potencijalnu primenu. Istraživanja su realizovana kroz tri faze...This doctoral dissertation represents a multidisciplinary study in which optimal synthesis conditions of poly-(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) spherical particles with incorporated selenium nanoparticles were determined, comprehensive characterization of obtained systems by various physicochemical methods was conducted and investigations of biological properties significant for the potential application of this biocomposite material were performed. In order to complete these tasks investigations were carried out into three consequent stages..

Counterfactual probability

Postoji pojam verovatnoće koji se koristi u determinističkim sistemima, poput bacanja novčića, ali ostaje puno pitanja kako tačno shvatiti taj pojam. Cilj ovog istraživanja je pružanje argumenata da taj pojam treba razumeti kao protivčinjeničku verovatnoću. Da bismo opravdali ovakav zaključak, napravićemo nekoliko glavnih koraka u istraživanju. Prvo, analiziraćemo poznate istorijske i moderne interpretacije objektivnog pojma verovatnoće. Ova analiza će služiti da istaknemo mane i vrline bitnih radova u filozofiji verovatnoće, i da pokažemo da učenjem od prethodnika možemo da dođemo do određenog zaključka oko toga kakva interpretacija verovatnoće treba da bude. Tvrdiću da nam ti zaključci favorizuju protivčinjeničku interpretaciju verovatnoće, čije je osnove izneo Džon Bigelou. Predložiću modifikaciju njegove teorije. Drugo, analiziraćemo najjače argumente za inkompatibilizam objektivne verovatnoće i determinizma. Zaključićemo da je deo diskusije povodom (in)kompatibilizma u filozofiji verovatnoće plod terminološke zbrke. Uz preciznije određenje probabilističkih pojmova, pokazaćemo da ima razloga da prihvatimo kompatibilističku poziciju. Najzad, analiziraćemo tri primera determinističkih sistema koji obiluju probabilističkim pojmovima: klasičnu statističku mehaniku, evolutivnu biologiju, i igre šansi, i pokazati da postoje razlozi da se probabilistički pojmovi u slučaju klasične statističke mehanike i igre šansi shvate kao protivčinjeničke verovatnoće, a da u slučaju evolutivne biologije možemo poboljšati argumente Eliota Sobera ukoliko prihvatimo protivčinjeničku interpretacijuCertain notion of probability has been widely used in deterministic systems. However, lots of open question remain about the exact meaning of the notion. The aim of this research is to argue that the notion should be interpreted as counterfactual probability. To justify such a conclusion, we will make several steps in the research. First, we will analyze major historical and modern interpretations of the objective probability. This should serve to highlight both the flaws and virtues of famous ideas in the field of philosophy of probability, and to show that by learning from the predecessors we can come to some conclusions about what should be a good candidate for an interpretation of probability, i.e. what are criteria for acceptable interpretation of probability. I will argue that these conclusions favor the counterfactual interpretation of probability, originally proposed by John Bigelow. I will propose modification of his theory, for some philosophical reasons. Second, we will analyze the strongest arguments for incompatibilism of objective probabilities and determinism. We will conclude that at least part of the long discussion regarding (in)compatibilsm in the philosophy of probability is the result of a conceptual confusion. Using more precise probabilistic concepts, we will show that there are reasons to accept compatibilsm. Finally, we will analyze three examples of deterministic systems intertwined with probabilistic concepts: classical statistical mechanics, evolutionary biology, and games of chance. We will show that there are reasons to interpret probability in the cases of classical statistical mechanics and games of chance as counterfactual probability, and in the case of evolutionary biology, we can refine Eliot Sober's arguments if we interpret probability as counterfactual probabilit