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Rising vaccine hesitancy is often related to negative vaccination media coverage. It is generally accepted that the media played a great role in spreading the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) childhood vaccination scare first in the UK and then worldwide. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the MMR vaccination rate dropped further in some countries. This paper examines the Serbian news media framing of the MMR vaccination controversy in the period 2019–2023 (periods of declining MMR vaccination rate, rising COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and the 2023 measles outbreaks). Furthermore, the paper questions whether the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the MMR vaccine narrative in the newspapers. For this reason, quality content analysis of the press in combination with framing approaches (diagnostic–prognostic–motivational framing tasks and responsibility framing) were used. In total, 122 articles dealing with the MMR vaccine and measles epidemics were analysed. According to the press, the most significant cause of the declining MMR rate is anti-vaccination campaigns and conspiracy theories by the "anti-vax lobby" (diagnostic frames). The pandemic was the other significant cause for the intake drop. Achieving herd immunity through vaccine uptake is offered as the best solution (prognostic frames). Finally, MMR vaccination campaigns and penalties for non-compliant parents and vaccine refusers are proposed as calls to action (motivational frames). During this period, the press did not publish any "sensational anti-vax stories". Considering the low MMR vaccine numbers in Serbia in this period, positive media messages did not have a significant influence on improving the vaccination rate. Thus, I suggest that Serbian parents distrust vaccination information presented by the dominant news, including the advice of health experts. • Strong childhood and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Serbia. • The press blames the "anti-vaxx lobby" as the main culprit for low vaccination rate. • The lack of sensational anti-vaccine stories in the press. • Lack of state responsibility for the low MMR vaccine uptake. • Vaccine scepticism as an answer to the state strategies during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an artistic paleolandscape experiment based primarily on recent palynological data from the Paleolithic site of Pešturina, in the Central Balkans of Serbia. These data are integrated into the general knowledge of flora and vegetation changes in the Balkans and southern Carpathians obtained through other paleobotanical sequences, especially pollen records from lake sediments. The paleoartistic proposal includes several drawing attempts at different geographic scales with an emphasis on plant taxa and their position within glacial refugia. The contrast with the interglacial situation is also illustrated, but the work especially focuses on the concept of long-term refugia and the altitudinal shifts of steppes, conifers, and broad-leaf trees. An ecological and biogeographical discussion accompanies the illustrations, highlighting the insurmountable methodological limitations and the challenges that pose obstacles to the progress of palynology as a technique for paleoenvironmental reconstruction at the spatial scale. The structure of the paper aims to serve as a guiding example for the teaching and scientific dissemination of paleosciences, from a conservationist perspective that is much needed in the current scenario of global change and biodiversity crisis. • Challenging Traditional Zoocentrism in Paleoartistic Research. • Paleoartistic works show Paleolithic vegetation within a Refugium in Central Balkans. • During the Pleistocene, Balkan Neanderthals survived in the ecotone between steppes and mixed forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Non-drivers with physical disabilities (PD) more prefer to use autonomous vehicles (AV) than drivers. • Persons with PD who live in urban areas prefer to use AV over others. • Persons with PD's intention to use AV predominantly depends on their view of AV, not their mobility habits. • AV have excellent potential to improve access to transportation and ensure transportation equity. • One solution is introducing AV in the public transport system following accessibility, reliability, and safety principles. Improving access to transportation and ensuring transportation equity for persons with physical disabilities is one of the global challenges. Autonomous vehicles are pointed out as the potential solution to these problems. The views of persons with physical disabilities about autonomous vehicles differed sharply and substantially compared to non-disabled and other persons with disabilities. Therefore, this paper investigates differences in acceptance of autonomous vehicles among different groups of persons with physical disabilities. The driving status criterion was used because this fact significantly impacts the quality of life and social status. The paper's main contribution is to help create policies and practices related to autonomous vehicles following the real needs of persons with physical disabilities. The research was conducted in a country with vast problems of inclusion of persons with disabilities and transportation equity – Serbia. The Bayesian linear regression models were created with weakly informative prior distributions. We found that non-drivers with physical disabilities prefer to use autonomous vehicles more than drivers. The key issues of the successful introduction of autonomous vehicles are attitudes, accessibility, and trust. Autonomous vehicles present an excellent opportunity to improve mobility and transportation equity for non-drivers with physical disabilities. Transportation stakeholders, vehicle manufacturers, and representative associations of persons with disabilities should cooperate closely, respecting the concept „Nothing about us, without us.". One solution for resolving recognized challenges is introducing autonomous vehicles in the public transport system following accessibility, reliability, and safety principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Monitoring all comparable factors to prevent risky driving is a challenging task. • Star rating is reliable to identify factors associated with risky driving behaviors. • Star rating of the driver's behavior provides credible in-depth analysis of behavior. • The most significant factors determine the monitoring stages at the territory level. • Effects of the goal-oriented actions depend on the most contributing factors. Driver behavior is a key determinant of road safety. Risky behaviors can be measured and quantified using traditional and modern methods, which enables the assessment of the driver's behavior. Following lessons from safety science, it is important to analyse and manage risks factors to optimize interventions in the transport context at the territory. The main objective of the paper is to explore the star rating of the driver's behavior to provide credible road safety monitoring and identification of the factors that most contribute to risky driving behaviors. The Data Envelopment Analysis method for selection of most significant factors is used for star rating of driver's behavior. The subject of the analysis encompasses 18 factors for 27 police administration units (PAUs) in the Republic of Serbia. The results are analysed regarding the following aspects: 1) star rating of driver's behavior and 2) defining the stages of the periodic factors monitoring for each PAU analysed. Using a mobile phone while driving, not using child restraints system, alcohol drunk driving during the night and seat belt use at rear seats of passenger vehicles were identified as the most significant factors associated with risky driving behaviors. Monitoring a broader set of factors helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a territory's road safety system. Star rating of driver's behavior as a tool intended for decision-makers ensures monitoring, management, the exchange of evidence-based and customized best practices and defining earlier goal-oriented actions to manage driver's behavior and to prevent risky driving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A generalized mathematical model has been proposed to analysis COVID-19. • Deterministic and stochastic SIQR models with vaccination and treatment are studied. • Conditions for the extinction of the epidemic are obtained. • The theoretical results of model are verified by the epidemic data of Russia and Serbia. • We make the short-term prediction of COVID-19 in Russia and Serbia. In this paper, we propose and investigate the SIQR epidemic model with a generalized incidence rate function, a general treatment function and vaccination term. We firstly consider the existence and uniqueness of the global nonnegative solution to the deterministic model. Further, we show the locally asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium of the deterministic model, and obtain the basic reproduction number R 0. Then we study the existence and uniqueness of the global positive solution to the stochastic model with any positive initial value. Meanwhile, we obtain sufficient conditions for the extinction of the disease in the stochastic epidemic model, and find that the large noise can make the disease die out exponentially. Finally, we make an empirical analysis by the COVID-19 data of Russia and Serbia. By the performance comparison of different models, it shows that the model with vaccination and treatment we proposed is better for the real situation, which is also verified by different estimation methods. Especially, that shows the recovery rate of the infected increases by 0.042 and the death rate of the recovered is 1.525 times that of normal human in Russia. Through statistical analysis, the short-term trend of epidemic transmission is predicted: under the condition of unchanged prevention and control policies, it may reach a stable endemic equilibrium state in Russia and the epidemic will eventually extinct in Serbia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mushrooms have become a relevant part of our diet globally, as non-animal sources of proteins; but data on their value chain and environmental impact are still scarce. Therefore, a good understanding of the environmental impacts of mushroom production, the environmental hotspots throughout the value chain, comparisons between production systems and regions, and an assessment of the improvement potential of mushroom production is required. This paper carried out a life cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate the environmental impacts of three Agaricus bisporus mushroom production systems in three different European countries: Spain, Poland and Serbia. We found that there is a large variability in the composition of the substrates, which is in all cases a combination of compost (mainly straw and animal manure) topped by casing materials (mainly peat), and a large variability in energy use, substrate use and yields. Especially the Serbian organic dried mushroom case distinguishes from the other conventional fresh mushroom cases. This is also reflected in the life cycle impact assessment results. The composting processes resulted in the largest contribution to environmental impact (about 49.6% on average ranging between 16.4% and 84.4% across all impacts assessed), followed by the electricity production and the casing (respectively 20.3% and 10.3% on average across all systems and impact categories analysed). Thus, optimizing composting and casing production together with switching to renewable energy sources appeared to be the most effective to reduce the overall environmental impacts of mushroom production. This paper provided a comprehensive assessment across Europe which could be further expanded to have a broader and more representative overview of the impact of mushroom production at European level. • A life cycle assessment (LCA) of three mushroom production systems was carried out. • Composting, casing and electricity production are the main source of impacts. • Large variability was observed in casing and compost use. • Optimising compost, casing and electricity production improves mushroom impacts. • Increasing mushroom productivity reduced mushroom production environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Red wines had up to 60 times higher levels of phenolic compounds than white wines. • Hydroxycinnamic acids were a characteristic of white wines. • Anthocyanins were responsible for the highest variations between varieties. • Epicatechin and some phenolic acids could be a terroir characteristic of Fruška Gora. • Domestic and autochthonous Fruška Gora varieties showed great biological potential. This paper presents a comprehensive study of commercially available monovarietal red and white wines from Fruška Gora mountain in Serbia, conducted to characterize their chemical and biochemical properties. Namely, 72 wines of 18 different Vitis vinifera varieties, including international, domestic and autochthonous ones, were assessed. Phenolic profile of wines was determined qualitatively, using spectrophotometric methods, and quantitatively, using LC-MS/MS and HPLC-UV/VIS methods. Quantified phenolic compounds pointed out differences between red and white wines, where some compounds stood out as distinctive characteristic of analyzed varieties, while others served as chemotaxonomic markers of the Fruška Gora region. Antioxidant and inhibitory properties towards acetylcholinesterase were evaluated for all wines and their relation to phenolic composition was investigated. This study is valuable since chemical and biochemical properties of domestic and autochthonous Fruška Gora varieties are reported for the first time. Also, international varieties studied herein gave distinctive information about the terroir of Fruška Gora region, which is scarce in scientific literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the global population becomes more concentrated in urban environments, higher numbers of people will be exposed to urban air pollution. The environmental and human health benefits of green roofs are widely recognized. The aim of this paper is to promote green roofs as an effective passive technique for pollution mitigation and adaptation to climate change. During the heating season, the ambient concentrations of PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 were measured above a green roof and a reference roof on a school building, located in New Belgrade, the second-most populous municipality and business center of Serbia's largest city. The percent reduction of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1, in January 2020, above the green roof compared to the reference roof was 7%, 16.6%, and 17.6%, respectively. The results show that lightweight green roof improve air quality in terms of PM concentrations for all months considered. In this paper, correlation analysis and the use of Pearson's coefficient were used in the process of analysis to determine the relationship between PM10, PM2.5, PM1, and ambient parameters: relative humidity, ambient temperature, and wind speed. It was found that the statistical correlation expressed by the Pearson coefficient between all PM particles and wind speed was statistically significant in all observed months except September. Also, the degree of significance of the correlation between PM particles and humidity and temperature of ambient air varies by month. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatiotemporal variations in drought in Serbia over recent decades using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). The analysis is performed for time series of 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month SPEI indices (SPEI-01, SPEI-03, SPEI-06 and SPEI-12, respectively) calculated using the E -OBS gridded dataset with a horizontal resolution of 0.1° for the period of 1950–2022. In general, it was found that negative SPEI trends prevailed in Serbia for all months and all analyzed SPEI timescales, indicating a more frequent appearance of droughts in recent decades. Moreover, for a large majority of month-timescale combinations, the area with a negative trend was larger than the area with a positive trend. For several reasons, we focused on the SPEI for August. First, the SPEI for this month shows one of the most pronounced negative trends, which is rather consistent over different timescales and consistent in terms of the area over which the trend was found to be significant. Statistically significant negative trends of SPEI-03, −06 and − 12 for August were found over 11, 17 and 38% of the country area, respectively. To better understand the trends and changes in the SPEI for August, focusing on extreme and severe drought events, an innovative trend analysis (ITA) was applied. It was found that the occurrence of both extreme and severe SPEI drought categories has doubled over the last thirty years in comparison with the previous thirty-year period. Additionally, more frequent transitions from neutral and wet categories to dry categories were observed through an application of the Markov chain. Second, the special focus on SPEI-03, −06 and − 12 for August was motivated by the fact that we found a significant correlation between these index values and the annual maize production in Serbia, indicating that the SPEI for August can be useful for the assessment of drought impact on agriculture. To better understand interannual variability and long-term trends, this paper also explores the relations between the SPEI over Serbia and large-scale circulation patterns, together with general global and continental warming trends. Our findings indicate that drought changes over recent decades may be driven by the interplay of long-term warming and large-scale circulation patterns. In the context of climate change, especially climate projections, Serbia is situated in a region for which climate projections of mean precipitation change demonstrate weak signals and often with conflicting signs of change within multimodel ensembles. From this point of view, our results can be seen as a contribution to a better understanding of changes in extremes, in our case droughts, that can be hidden by inconclusive changes in the mean values. Finally, due to the similar situation in terms of precipitation and drought trends and changes, our results may be relevant for a wider region, and not only for Serbia. • For Serbia negative trends in SPEI index, for different months and timescales, are dominant. • Occurrence of extreme drought categories has doubled over the last decades. • Transitions from neutral and wet categories to dry categories are more frequent. • These changes are driven by long-term warming and large-scale circulation patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research in the southern Central Balkans has resulted in the discovery of the first Middle Paleolithic sites in this region. Systematic excavations of Velika and Mala Balanica, and Pešturina (southern Serbia) revealed assemblages of Middle Paleolithic artifacts associated with hominin fossils and animal bones. This paper focuses on Pešturina Layer 4, radiometrically and biostratigraphically dated to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, which yielded traces of temporary hunting camps. The remains of large ungulate prey are associated with predominantly Quina-type artifacts made of quartz. Artifacts from Pešturina Cave have no parallels at Mousterian sites in the Balkans but are rather similar to the Central European Charentian, which demonstrates that this cultural unit was widespread during MIS 5, not only in the southern Pannonian Basin but also in the Central Balkans. The position of the site – on the outskirts of the known spread of the Quina model of techno-economic behavior during MIS 5 – raises several questions related to population movements, residential mobility, and technological variability in the early Middle Paleolithic of Central and Southeast Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collection of data on accidents in inland navigation is not mandatory in many European countries. The lack of a harmonized methodology or a centralized database of information on accidents makes it difficult to have a comprehensive picture of safety on European inland waterways. The problem becomes particularly evident in light of significant navigational challenges such as the introduction of autonomous shipping. To provide a better understanding of safety in inland navigation, the paper presents the results of an analysis of data on some 700 accidents which took place on the inland waterways in Austria and Serbia, over a 15-year period (2001/2002–2017). The analysis identifies the safety "hot spots" and the most important safety issues on examined waterways. Contrary to the widely-accepted belief, the results do not confirm that most of the accidents could be attributed to human failures and show that the removal of human operators from inland vessels could only have a limited positive impact on safety unless other aspects (primarily related to maintenance of the fleet and the waterway) are considered. Consequently, the paper outlines the fundamental conditions in which it would be possible to reduce the human presence or even remove the crew from inland ships. • Over 700 accidents on inland waterways in Austria and Serbia are analyzed. • Critical waterway sectors where most of the accidents took place are identified. • AcCident types and causes are classified with respect to frequency. • Human failures caused less than 60% of accidents in Austria and 20% of accidents in Serbia. • Conditions for removal of human operators from inland vessels are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic congestion is, nowadays, one of the most important highway problems. Highway tolls with booth operators are one of the causes of traffic congestion on highways, especially in rush hour periods, or during seasonal holiday travels. The value of driver waiting time (needed to stop and pay the toll) and the cost of the toll booth operators can reach up to about one-third of the revenue. In this paper we propose a novel methodology for continuous-time optimal control of highway tolls by predicting the optimal number of active modules (booths) in toll stations. The proposed methodology is based on a combination of recurrent neural networks, queuing theory, and metaheuristics. We utilized several recurrent neural network architectures for predicting the average intensity of vehicle arrivals. Moreover, the prediction error of the first recurrent neural network was modelled by another one in order to provide confidence estimates, additional regularization, and robustness. The predicted intensity of vehicle arrival rates was used as an input of the queuing model, whereas differential evolution was applied to minimize the total cost (waiting and service costs) by determining the optimal number of active modules on a highway toll in continuous time. The developed methodology was experimentally tested on real data from highway E70 in the Republic of Serbia. The obtained results showed significantly better performance compared to the currently used toll station opening pattern. The solutions obtained by solving a system of differential equations of the queuing model were also validated by a simulation procedure. • In this paper we proposed the methodology for unsolved problem of predicting the optimal number of active modules on toll stations. • Flexible modelling of the intensity function without using complicated simulation procedures. • The proposed methodology was applied on real-world data and demonstrate its effectiveness in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Source strength measurements are of critical importance for brachytherapy and are often performed in hospitals using well-type chambers. Quality assurance and quality control procedures should be implemented, but that may prove difficult in some hospitals due to the lack of equipment or metrological support. A study was conducted to investigate the status of the measurement equipment in Serbian hospitals and to organize an intercomparison campaign using a hospital 192Ir source. All the hospitals were able to measure the source strength with the required accuracy, but the quality assurance can be improved. Two hospitals performed stability checks, which were evaluated. Uncertainty budget was created during the exercise and is presented in this paper. The described methodology can be used to quickly assess the performance of brachytherapy centers, and can be easily adapted to calibration procedure. • Intercomparison of brachytherapy source strength measurements was conducted. • All the results satisfy the predetermined criteria. • Uncertainty budget is dominated by chamber calibration coefficient. • Well-type chamber stability was excellent over a long period of time. • QA/QC procedures are of critical importance for source strength measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on the rural-urban gradient in Serbia has been reinvigorated following the debate on rural bias. Rural-urban classification is essential in observing spatial, demographic, socio-economic, and environmental processes. There is no consensus regarding the definition of rural and rurality and it should not be observed separately from urban issues. In Serbia, it is still a matter of dispute. Rural is most often observed through the urban–rural dichotomy and "left behind" for decades. This paper strives for a new theoretical understanding of the rurality in Serbia by introducing rural heterogeneity and 'continuing' rurality, considering the transformative phase they are affected by. It induces a process of rethinking what rurality in Serbia is and offers an innovative methodological approach for rural delineation and settlement classification based on three main pillars: settlement patterns, functional patterns, and local relevance. The analysis is conducted on the lowest administrative level in Central Serbia. Five types of settlements are identified: two urban, and three characterized by rural features. The combination of abstractions and the methodological opportunities introduced by rethinking rurality offers geographers and practitioners a powerful methodological tool for the understanding of rural transformations and transitional spatial forms, which underpins planning and policy-making in Serbia. • The contemporary conception of rurality strives for complexity. • Settlement type could not be divided strictly as rural either urban. • Rural-urban gradient in Serbia illustrate transformative phase of rural areas. • We fulfil the gap in the official settlement differentiation. • Settlement type will determine the types of appropriate planning approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • New ring tensile specimen for pipeline material fracture testing is examined. • Specimens (ring and plane) produced by selective laser sintering from polymer PA12. • Determined dependence on specimen geometry and stress concentrator length. • PRNT specimen enables good assessment of pipeline material fracture properties. • Simple fabrication from pipe; Pressure simulated by contact with the testing tool. In order to develop a non-standard method for determining the resistance to fracture and damage of pipeline materials, a new geometry of ring-shaped specimens with sharp notches or cracks has been defined. The need to develop a new method for testing of the specimens cut from the pipes arises due to the difficulties in determination of fracture mechanics parameters on thin-walled pressure pipelines, especially those with a smaller cross-section, by application of the standard procedures/specimens. Previous studies dealing with the topic of pipeline testing by non-standard methods are presented in the introductory part of the paper. In the experimental part of the research, tests on PRNT (Pipe Ring Notched Tension) and SENT (Single Edge Notched Tension) specimens are performed. Samples of these specimens were produced by SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) technique of additive production from PA12 (polyamide PA 2200) material. For the purpose of this study, a tool that is protected at the national level (in Serbia) as intellectual property is used for testing of the ring-shaped PRNT specimens. Tensile testing of both types of specimens is monitored by Aramis GOM 2M system; its operation is based on the method of digital image correlation, DIC. Additionally, finite element analyses are conducted on the PRNT and SENT geometries, enabling the calculation of the fracture mechanics parameter – Stress intensity factor K. It is concluded that the presented procedure based on the PRNT specimen has a good potential for use as a non-standard method for fracture resistance examination of pipeline materials. It can be performed on the specimens cut directly from the pipes (new or from exploitation). The dependence of the fracture resistance on the stress concentrator size is not pronounced, which means that the results depend dominantly on the material properties, rather than on geometry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of this paper is the ideological perspective on the names of city streets in a post-socialist context. Studies of post-socialist cities have indicated that the symbolic deconstruction of the socialist identity was an important part of the legitimization of new elites. Renaming the streets of the cities of Serbia was also a segment in the process of the symbolic revision of the past, with aim to erase the memory of the Yugoslav and anti-fascist tradition. What is interesting, however, is that the opposite ideological contexts during the post-socialist period in this region formed a specific, ambivalent cultural memory, and so despite the renaming, anti-fascist and socialist symbols in the street names have remained in great numbers. The final outcome of the policy of renaming is a city text which reflects the ideologically heterogenous image of socialism and anti-fascism on the one hand, and the retraditionalizationist, nationalist currents on the other. The paper presents a case study of the City of Niš with the aim of presenting the historical-ideological portrait of the city by analyzing 1355 street names. The main source of data for this study is publication based on the official data from relevant city institutions. • Socialist political symbols are dominant in the odonyms of postsocialist Niš. • Postsocialism saw more streets renamed in the suburbs than in the city center. • Renaming of the streets in the suburbs had no ideological character. • Renaming in the city center predominantly included political symbols in odonyms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Serbia has a significant potential for the electricity production from solar energy, namely the floating photovoltaic (PV) systems, which are not exploited enough. Although there is a large interest in floating photovoltaic systems (FPVS) worldwide, studies related to the assessment of FPVS potential in this part of Europe have not been performed yet. This paper investigates, for the first time, the possibility of implementation of the FPVS on the six largest Serbian lakes and demonstrates the impact of geographical location on the energy output of the FPVS for the selected locations. The possibility of implementation is studied by simulating the energy output of FPVS using "PVGIS" tool. Energy production from the proposed FPVS, for selected locations, is discussed on a monthly and yearly basis. Installment of the FPVS on these water bodies can produce up to 8959 kWh of energy, while saves 164 · 10 6 m 3 / y e a r of water from evaporation at the same time. In addition, the annual reduction of carbon dioxide emissions was analyzed and found to be up to 6.34 tons per year, which further implies with carbon credit potential of up to 9741 € in 20 years period. Drawn conclusions provides better understanding of FPVS and their applicability in the Republic of Serbia to ensure a sustainable, ecological friendly, secure and reliable supply of green energy, and further the used approach can be easily applied in other countries with similar geographical characteristics. • Methodology for the application of floating PV systems on water bodies. • FPVS on six largest lakes in Serbia are able to produce up to 8959 kWh of energy. • FPVS could mitigate up to 126.8 tons of carbon dioxide in 20 years. • The Government of Serbia could earn total carbon credit per year from 381 to 487 €. • FPVS could save 3280 million cubic meters of water from evaporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate load forecasting of the district heating network (DHN) is essential to guarantee effective energy production, distribution, and rational utilization. An improved Facebook-Prophet (FB-Prophet) model with additional positional encoding layers has been developed to forecast the DHN heat consumption. The accuracy of univariate and multivariate FB-Prophet models is evaluated; this paper also evaluates the optimum training dataset length. To explore the performance of the improved FB-Prophet model in heating load forecasting tasks, another seven machine learning models, namely FB-Prophet, DeepVAR, long-short term memory, extreme gradient boosting, multilayer perceptron, recurrent neural network, and support vector regression are used for comparison. The historical heating load, outside temperature, relative humidity, speed of wind, direction of wind, and weather type of a DHN in Serbia are utilized to extensively investigate the effectiveness of the improved FB-Prophet model. The prediction outcomes of all the models are thoroughly analyzed. The results indicate that the improved FB-Prophet model can generate the most precise and consistent predictions and it showed better results for sparse DHN data. The prediction curve is fitted to the trend of hourly DHN consumption change, which can play an effective guiding function in the distribution of heat. • An improved Facebook-Prophet model is proposed for heat load forecasting. • Positional encoding layers are added to build an accurate forecasting model. • Optimal dataset split ratio is evaluated for the proposed model to increase accuracy. • The proposed model is compared with another seven prediction models. • Results proved that the proposed model is superior in terms of heat load forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper presents the results of a theoretical and experimental program developed to study the seismic performance of precast reinforced concrete wall panels, strengthened with composite materials. These type of elements, also known nowadays as lightly reinforced shear walls with medium ductility (DCM), were widely used between 1955 and 1990 in different European countries (Serbia, Bulgaria, Polonia, Romania etc) being designed at that time without using the principle of shear force associated to the bending resisting moment. The current results refer to the investigation made on five specimens, one "as-built" solid wall, two walls with initial opening and two walls with cut-out opening. Usually, the cut-out procedure is applied cutting the concrete and reinforcements in order to create a new opening or enlarging an existing one. This intervention is widely requested by owners of apartments when they reconfigure the architecture of flats, but this procedure could influence the seismic behaviour by weakening the initial performance of the wall, especially due to the reduction of stiffness. In order to investigate the specimens' seismic behaviour, in-plane reversed cyclic lateral loadings were applied together with axial vertical loads. The specimens were monitored through the experimental tests using strain gauges, pressure and displacement transducers. Based on the experimental investigations performed on the reference undamaged walls, the specimens were repaired, then after were strengthened with the aim to reestablish the initial capacity of the elements without an important influence to the stiffness. The strengthening strategy proposed had used externally bonded FRP composite reinforcement (EBR-CFRP) and near-surface mounted FRP composite reinforcement (NSM-CFRP). The strengthened elements were tested again to study the behaviour of elements and the effectiveness of the proposed solutions. A numerical analysis was performed in order to check on the accuracy of using simple numerical models to predict the behaviour of strengthened shear walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

West Nile virus (WNV) can affect humans, birds, horses and another mammals, causing asymptomatic infection, mild febrile disease, neurological and systematic disease and death. In order to gain insight into the prevalence of WNV, a monitoring program has been established in the Republic of Serbia. Whole genome sequencing is essential for the molecular epizootiological analysis of virus entry and transmission routes, especially in high-risk regions. This paper describes the development of a multiplex PCR based NGS protocol for whole genome sequencing of WNV lineage 2 directly from biological samples using Oxford Nanopore (ONT) platform. The results obtained using this platform, confirmed by Sanger sequencing, indicate that this protocol can be applied to obtain whole sequences of the WNV genome, even when the virus concentration in the sample is medium, Ct value is approximately 30. The use of this protocol does not require prior virus isolation on cell culture nor the depletion of host nucleic acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, one of the biggest challenges in modern traffic engineering is related to traffic state estimation (TSE). Although many machine learning and domain models can be used for TSE, they do not consider the sparsity and spatial dependence of traffic state variables. In this paper, we propose a hybrid soft computing model of two Gaussian conditional random field (GCRF) models for the inference of traffic speed, which is a relevant variable for TSE and travel information systems. The proposed model can infer the traffic state variables in large-scale networks whose nodes are geographically dispersed. Moreover, by combining a Gaussian conditional random field binary classification model (GCRFBC), which classifies traffic regimes as free-flow or potentially congested, and a regression GCRF model for the prediction of traffic speed in potentially congested traffic regimes, the model addresses two specifics of the problem: sparsity in traffic data, and the fact that observations are not independent. The proposed model was tested on two large-scale real-world networks in Serbia, namely an arterial E70-E75 335 km long highway stretch and the major ski resort Kopaonik with 55 km of ski slopes. In addition, the proposed model showed better prediction performance than several other unstructured and structured models. • Hybrid model based on combination of two kinds of GCRFs is proposed. • Model is intended for prediction of correlated sparse outputs. • The model is tested on two real-world large-scale networks. • Advantages of proposed model are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been known that coronaviruses cause various infectious diseases in animals. Although SARS-CoV-2 is genetically related to viruses isolated from Rhinolophus bats, the exact origin, mode of transmission, and how the human species has become the epidemiological reservoir of the virus have not yet been established with certainty. Although the main route of transmission is human-to-human, there are considerable numbers of reported cases of infection in animal species, predominantly among pet animals. The aim of this retrospective study was to assess SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in dogs and cats during the COVID-19 pandemic in Šumadija District, Serbia. We used serology to identify household contacts of pet animals with infected pet owners and the degree of association. The study presented in this paper is also the first study of this type in Serbia. The results of a retrospective serosurvey, which was conducted in dogs and cats with different exposure risk factors, were analyzed to find the possible modes of transmission between humans and animals. The relative frequency of SARS-CoV-2 infection in dogs was 1.45% bounded with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.0007–7.73%, while in cats, it was 5.56% (95% CI: 0.77–4.13%). The relative frequency of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pet owners was 11% (95% CI: 6.25–18.63%). In pets that were in close contact with COVID-19 positive owners, the seropositivity was found to be 9%. Out of a total of five stray dogs and cats tested, seropositivity was observed in two animals. Detected SARS-CoV-2 infection in pets shows that these animals are susceptible to infection and that the most common means of virus transmission to pets is through contact with diseased owners. However, the presence of infection in stray dogs and cats is not clear and needs further research. • Companion animals that are in close contact (indoor) with infected owners are at higher risk of becoming infected. • Cats are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection than dogs. • There is no evidence that companion animals might serve as a significant source of infection for people. • Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in dogs and cats could be useful as an additional instrument for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As many as twenty years after the overthrow of its authoritarian political regime, Serbia remains a 'proto-democracy', supported by the economic ideology of wild neoliberalism. Under such circumstances, urban development is subject to various abuses, such as the misapplication of legal procedures, neglect of the public interest, and politicisation of planning. In particular, urban megaprojects exhibit various distortions, as they require special regulations, additional funding, long-term timeframes, and ad hoc actor-networks. Against that background, this paper examines the main ideological landscapes behind the Belgrade waterfront regeneration, illustrated by two projects – City on the Water and Belgrade Waterfront. By collecting 65 articles from the daily press, we identify relevant stakeholders and present their statements to depict their positions, viewpoints, interests, and specific value frameworks. The research is directed towards 1) recognition of conflicts and coalitions, 2) elucidation of decision-making patterns, and 3) identification of power structures in these two projects. Finally, comparing the key findings in each case helps understand the transformation of the ideological narratives and their effect on urban governance. • Planning, governance and implementation of urban megaprojects follow the 'logic of exception'. • Urban megaprojects cause extensive irregularities when implemented in post-socialist transitional societies. • Contemporary urban development in Belgrade has been subject to various abuses. • The method of discourse analysis elucidates both the urban governance and ideological landscapes shaping it. • Underpinned by the ideology of authoritarian neoliberalism, urban governance in Serbia has deteriorated during the last twenty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since December 2019, the global community has been challenged by managing the COVID-19 health crisis. Some governments have restricted the use of public green spaces (PGS), as part of measures for limiting the spread of the virus. Although many scholars studied the changing perception of using PGS during the pandemic, the extent to which the planning and design of new PGS recognize new realities and lessons learned from the ongoing pandemic including requirements for social distancing is less illuminated. Against this background, this article seeks to assess the intersection between the institutional responsibility in planning, designing and managing PSG, and the corresponding perception by PGS users in the two Serbian cities Belgrade and Novi Sad during the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, the paper surveyed 400 respondents about their perception of introduced measures and physical settings of PGS including their specific suggestions concerning which features, if included, would help them remain vigilant during a pandemic. The findings suggest that people have very clear and diverse ideas about the planning, design and management of PGS during a health crisis adapted to their individual needs but also beneficial to the whole local community. In reviewing public green space design competition calls and results published from 2019 to 2021, this study finds that the global lessons learned about the use of public green spaces during the pandemic were not considered by local governments and professionals in Serbia when planning and designing them. In addition, residents are less likely to request changing ways of implementing, designing or managing PGS from their local government. These two aspects are striking in successfully shaping and managing PGS as a crucial resource in cities and communities bouncing back after the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: The importance of clinical natural language processing (NLP) has increased with the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs). One of the critical tasks in clinical NLP is named entity recognition (NER). Clinical NER in the Serbian language is a severely under-researched area. The few approaches that have been proposed so far are based on rules or machine-learning models with hand-crafted features, while current state-of-the-art models have not been explored. The objective of this paper is to assess the performance of state-of-the-art NER methods on clinical narratives in the Serbian language.Materials and Methods: We designed an experimental setup for a comprehensive evaluation of state-of-the-art NER models. The gold standard corpus we used for the evaluation is comprised of discharge summaries from the Clinic for Nephrology at the University Clinical Center of Serbia. The following models were evaluated: conditional random fields (CRF), multilingual transformers (BERT Multilingual and XLM RoBERTa), and long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks, and their ensembles. In addition, we investigated the necessity of the pretraining task of transformer based models and the use of pretrained word embeddings with LSTM model.Results: Our results show that individually CRF had the best precision, the pretrained BERT Multilingual model had the best recall values, and the LSTM model had the best F1 score. The best performance was achieved by combining the existing models in a majority voting ensemble with an F1 score of 0.892. The presented results are similar to the inter annotator agreement on our gold standard corpus and are comparable to existing state-of-the-art results for clinical NER reported in literature.Conclusion: Existing state-of-the-art models can provide viable results for clinical named entity recognition when applied to languages with the complexity of the Serbian language without major modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Determination of 22 PAHs in honey samples by DLLME-GC–MS. • Chemometric approach for identifying the main PAHs responsible of contamination. • Comparison with similar database for evidencing the contamination sources. • Chemometrics for tracing the food quality based on the production area. The quality of honey is assessed through the determination of some commodity parameters: a certain importance is to be attributed to the absence of contaminating residues, in particular of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). This paper deeply investigates the presence of 22 PAHs in 57 honey samples collected in Central Italy and identifies the possible source apportionment and fingerprint identification by DLLME-GC–MS analysis and a chemometric approach. Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis have allowed to identify the main PAHs responsible of the contamination, benzo[ a ]anthracene and phenanthrene, characteristics pollutants of areas constantly exposed. The entire database has been compared to similar ones present in literature, particularly data from Serbia and Belgrado samples. The PCA applied to overall the data confirms the combustion to be the main contamination source in Italian samples whereas highlights the importance of the role of naphthalene, added during beekeeping practices in the other data-set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 21st century, many countries are starting to use geothermal energy (GTE) as a new energy source. Serbia also has the potential to use it as a renewable energy source. The complex geological structure of its terrain has given rise to a large number of thermomineral springs and geothermal wells. Based on the existing measurements, the geothermal heat flow density in Serbia ranges from 80 to 120 mW/m2, which is above Europe's average (60 mW/m2). Currently, there are 66 projects in Serbia that directly use geothermal energy. There are an estimated 1005 geothermal heat pump units. Their power varies between 10 kW and 40 kW and they operate for 2860 full load hours per year. This paper deals with the development, current state and perspectives of geothermal energy utilization for heating in Serbia. To illustrate the current state of geothermal energy utilization in Serbia, spa settlements Vranjska Banja and Gornja Trepča, as well as the Bogatić Municipality have been singled out as examples of good practice. The presented analysis includes determining the available amount of geothermal energy and its utilization for district heating or heating of selected public facilities. The concept and methodology of the presented research are based on data collection through literature review, surveys and field research. The analysis confirms the cost-effectiveness of using geothermal energy and reveals numerous ecological advantages over other energy sources. However, it was concluded that аlthough there is potential, geothermal sources, as a renewable energy source, are used negligibly in Serbia. • An overview of the development of geothermal resources and their use for heat. • An analysis of the several examples of good practice in the use of GTE in Serbia. • A calculation of the thermal power and energy of selected wells. • Compared benefits of using GTE as a replacement for the traditional types of fuel. • Findings inform about perspectives for the future use of GTE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • We investigate consumer preferences for non-thermally processed fruit and vegetables. • The relative importance of product attributes was estimated using conjoint analysis. • Consumer choice was mainly driven by benefits related to health, nutrition and taste. • Results were robust across countries and segments (age, gender, and dietary status) • Food Technology Neophobia lowered choice likelihood for non-thermally processed products. A wide variety of novel non-thermal processing technologies (NTPTs) are under development to meet the increasing consumer demand for high-quality fruit and vegetable (F&V) products. Understanding consumers' needs and possible barriers to acceptance of these technologies is however essential to assess the commercial feasibility of mildly processed F&Vs. Situated within this context, and extending previous work on the topic, in this paper we present results from a large-scale choice-based conjoint analysis consumer survey to investigate consumers' choice behavior towards NTPT-processed F&V products in four European countries – Denmark, Italy, Serbia, and Spain, using three model products – orange juice, iceberg salad, and cherry tomatoes respectively processed via three NTPT – mild processing, novel washing, and active packaging, compared to three conventional processing techniques – pasteurization, conventional washing, and conventional packaging, respectively. Images of the three product categories were developed to systematically vary in three key attributes: stated benefits (health and nutrition, natural taste, shelf-life), information on processing (conventional, NTPT), and price point (reference, premium price). The results showed that, out of the three attributes considered, "stated benefit" was the most important driver of consumer choice – in all countries and across product categories. Benefits relevant to health and nutrition, and to natural taste were more positively received, compared to extension of shelf-life. Information on processing and price levels had a similar influence on consumer choice of iceberg salad and cherry tomatoes, whilst for orange juice processing had a larger effect than price, suggesting that information on processing may be more impactful for F&V-derived products than for fresh produce. Individual differences among consumers according to country, age, gender, and dietary status, appeared small and transient. The most consequential individual characteristic was consumers' level of food technology neophobia (FTN), with results showing that high FTN consumers (17% of the sample) were less likely to choose F&V treated with NTPT, compared to consumers with medium or low FTN. Overall, this research suggests that products treated with NTPT may have a broad appeal across European consumers, and that targeted communication explicitly and efficiently focusing on health and taste benefits has the greatest chance to meet consumer preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The method for optimal system planning based on multiple criteria was developed. • The created technique was based on the existing differential evolution algorithm. • The change of a discrete problem to a continuous one was done via georeferencing. • The obtained results of optimization were confirmed by brute-force approach. • The developed methodology can be seen as foundation for future exploration. The inability of the transmission system operators to deny the connection of renewable energy sources may cause the need for certain system reinforcements, especially if the area in which these sources are built was not previously recognized as the area with significant generation potential. The subject of this paper is defining the optimal new line that should be built in the system, according to the results of the conducted multicriteria analysis. The objective functions that were considered in this optimization were the maximization of the connected wind power plant's installed capacity and minimization of the costs of energy losses in the system during the new line's life span. The stated goal was achieved via the appropriate modification of the differential evolution technique. Usage of the developed optimization method for solving these problems is demonstrated both on the IEEE test-system and on the part of the 110 kV transmission system of Republic of Serbia, with the results of the performed calculations given in the form of the recommendations of the new lines in the system, followed by the effects that each of the proposed lines could have on the selected optimization criteria and the overall operational condition of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-labels are informational cues that transform credence into quasi-search attributes but their influence on consumer decision making is often disappointing. This paper identifies antecedents of trust in, and use of, eco-labels, validating a theoretical model with data for four publicly managed organic labels (the EU green leaf and three national labels from France, Germany and Serbia). Drawing on a large dataset of European consumers, the analysis reveals that the effect of institutional trust on use of an eco-label is mediated by trust in that eco-label. Trust in an eco-label positively affects use of that eco-label. Knowledge of third-party certification positively affects trust in, and use of, an eco-label. The results suggest that for eco-label managers wishing to increase consumer uptake of their labels, communicating third-party verification as is a critically important informational cue for enhancing consumer trust. • Identifies antecedents of trust in, and use of, publicly managed eco-labels. • Covers 4 organic labels: EU green leaf plus labels in France, Germany and Serbia. • Effect of institutional trust on use of an eco-label fully mediated by eco-label trust. • Trust in an eco-label positively affects eco-label use. • Knowledge of 3rd-party certification positively affects trust and use of eco-labels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reliable and efficient land administration plays a vital role in the country's development. For that purpose, records that ensure data management about real properties, rights, and legal or natural persons that are right holders should be well organized. Maintenance of cadastral records in Serbia, Montenegro, and the Republic of Srpska (one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina) have encountered many issues in recent years. There was a need for modernization to provide more efficient cadastral information systems. Following the recommendations to implement all international standards related to the field of interest to achieve interoperability and incorporate best practices, it was natural to consider the development of the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) country profiles and LADM based cadastral information systems in these case countries and the region. The domain models had to comply with the national laws, so the regulations also had to be analyzed in detail. Once the domain models were established and verified on the conceptual level, they were implemented as part of the technical solution for the cadastral information systems in the case countries and the region. The goal of the paper is to share the experience gained during the process of design and implementation of LADM based cadastral information systems in Serbia, Montenegro and the Republic of Srpska. This experience is summarized into methodological steps grouped into four design and implementation phases. These phases include conceptual modelling and development of LADM based country profiles in these regions, the definition of real estate cadastre business processes, database implementation and data migration, and finally, country profile's implementation in the form of a technical solution that is in use in cadastral offices and on the Web. The outcomes that resulted from the activities conducted in each of these steps are presented. The goal is also to present challenges we met during conducting activities in these phases and findings we reached in the process so they can be used as a basis for some other work and a more general methodology that will cover larger areas and countries outside Europe. • Activities in the development of LADM based country profiles in Serbia, Montenegro and Republic of Srpska are presented. • The methodology for the development of LADM based cadastral information system in these regions is presented. • The implementation of the developed profiles in practice in the form of technical solution in these regions is presented. • The experience gained during the implementation of LADM country profiles for these regions is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]