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The central focus of self-determination theory is the concept of the need for growth, which is used in interpreting the occurrence and maintenance of autonomous regulation of work behaviour. The aim of the research is to determine the relationship between the type of self-regulation and the dominant type of work motivation in secondary school teachers in the context of self-determination theory. Research participants were 194 teachers of both genders, aged between 24 and 64. The relationships between the type of self-regulation and the dominant type of work motivation were explored using the SRM-2 and EFQ questionnaires. The obtained results indicate that a lower level of self-integration is accompanied by the less autonomous types of work motivation, whereby the highest correlations occur between the ego-investing self-type and various forms of extrinsic motivation, while the integrated self-type correlates mostly with the intrinsic and the identified types of work motivation. It has been shown that different types of extrinsic motivation best discriminate the respondents with the integrated and the ego-investing self-type. It has also been shown that the identified and intrinsic types of work motivation best discriminate the group with an impersonal self and other two groups of respondents. When it comes to socio-demographic variables, the differences in the structure of motivation have been obtained only with respect to gender.

The main objective of the research was to determine the relationship of personal values measured Schwatrz's questionnaire and types of involvement of consumers in the product. The assumption is that there is a connection between certain dimension values (Power, Achievement, Hedonism, Stimulation, Self-direction, Universalism, Benevolence, Tradition, Conformity, and Security) and types of involvement in this product: Satisfaction, Importance, Meaning, Consequences of risk and Probability of risk. In addition, we examined the differences in the hierarchical structure of values in different groups of consumers. The study was conducted on a sample of 200 consumers from the territory of the Republic of Serbia, different genders, ages, education levels and purchasing power. The investigation used Schwartz's scale of universal values (Schwartz, 1992) and profile involvement (Laurent and Kapferer, 1985), as well as a list of socio-demographic variables. The most dominanat dimension of involvement relates to pleasure, while the dominant value dimension is Hedonism . When it comes to socio-demographic variables, differences in the expression of value dimensions exist in relation to the age and income levels. There were no differences in value orientations of respondents when it comes to gender, and education level. As significant predictors for the types of involvement are allocated to the following value dimensions: Benevolence, Self-direction, Stimulation, Hedonism, Power, Tradition, Conformity, Spirituality. Based on the value dimension is not possible to predict the types of involvement that relate to meaning and probability of risk.

The main objective of the research relates to establish predictable values of causality orientation for types of consumer involvement in product. Beside that, the possible differences in expression of causality orientations and dimension of involvement within different groups of respondents were tested. The assumption is that it is possible to predict some of five types of consumer involvement: pleasure, importance, sign, risk importance, risk probability according to dominant type of causality orientation (autonomy, controlled, impersonal). The research were conducted on a sample of 178 consumers on the territory of Republic of Serbia on different types of sex, ages, married and working status, level of education and purchasing power. The General Causality Orientation Scale (Deci and Ryan,1985) and Profil involvement (Laurent and Kapferer, 1985) were used. Pleasure is the most expressed dimension of involvement. When we are talking about sociodemographic variable and the expression of single dimension involvement, there are differences in sex and education. The degree differences of general causality orientation exist only in sex. As important predictors of involvement type the next causality orientation were separated: autonomy for pleasure, controlled for importance and risk importance and impersonal for risk probability. It is not possible to predict the type of involvement on base of general causality orientation of respondents.

Survival and cause-specific mortality rates are vital for evidence-based population forecasting and conservation, particularly for large carnivores, whose populations are often vulnerable to human-caused mortalities. It is therefore important to know the relationship between anthropogenic and natural mortality causes to evaluate whether they are additive or compensatory. Further, the relation between survival and environmental covariates could reveal whether specific landscape characteristics influence demographic performance. We used telemetry data on 681 Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), a model apex predator with large spatial requirements, that were tracked across their European distribution. Through time-to-event analyses, we sought to determine the variables associated with differences in their survival. Illegal killing was the main cause of mortality (33.8%), and mortality rates were similar in protected and hunted populations (8.6% and 7.0% per year, respectively). Survival varied greatly across populations (70-95% per year). Across all study sites, higher hunting and anthropogenic mortality rates were partially compensated by lower rates of other mortality causes but not by natural mortality alone. Variation in survival depended on sex (female survival was 1.5 times greater than male survival) and seasonality (highest risk during hunting season and winter), and lower survival rates were correlated with higher human modification of landscapes at both coarse (home range composition) and fine (habitat use within home range) scales. Some variation in survival was driven by unobserved factors, which, given the high rates of human-caused mortalities, including illegal killing, are of foremost concern. Due to the low natural mortality rates in protected and hunted populations, we conclude that anthropogenic causes of mortality are likely close to additive, such that maintaining or increasing refuge habitat with little human disturbance is critical to lynx conservation., (© 2025 The Author(s). Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.)

Inbreeding depression poses a severe threat to small populations, leading to the fixation of deleterious mutations and decreased survival probability. While the establishment of natural gene flow between populations is an ideal long-term solution, its practical implementation is often challenging. Reinforcement of populations by translocating individuals from larger populations is a viable strategy for reducing inbreeding, increasing genetic diversity and potentially saving populations from extinction. The Dinaric population of Eurasian lynx ( Lynx lynx ) has faced high inbreeding levels, with effective inbreeding reaching 0.316 in 2019, endangering the population's survival. To counteract this, population reinforcement was implemented between 2019 and 2023, involving the translocation of 12 individuals from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dinaric Mountains of Slovenia and Croatia. We conducted comprehensive genetic monitoring in this area, gathering 588 non-invasive and tissue samples, which were used for individual identification and estimation of population genetic parameters. We used stochastic modelling to assess the long-term viability of the Dinaric lynx population post-translocation and formulate effective conservation strategies. The model predicts that, despite significant improvement of genetic diversity after translocations, inbreeding will return to critical levels within 45 years. Our results highlight the fact that reinforcement is just the first step and that long-term genetic management is needed to keep the population from sliding back towards extinction. The Dinaric lynx population serves as a compelling example of genetic rescue. The lessons learnt here will be essential for ensuring the viability of the Dinaric lynx in the future and also provide a useful template for conservation of other populations and species facing similar threats., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2025 The Author(s). Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The estimation of foraging parameters is fundamental for understanding predator ecology. Predation and feeding can vary with multiple factors, such as prey availability, presence of kleptoparasites and human disturbance. However, our knowledge is mostly limited to local scales, which prevents studying effects of environmental factors across larger ecological gradients. Here, we compared inter-kill intervals and handling times of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) across a large latitudinal gradient, from subarctic to the Mediterranean ecosystems, using a standardised dataset of predicted adult ungulate kills from 107 GPS-collared lynx from nine distinct populations in Europe. We analysed variations in these two foraging parameters in relation to proxies reflecting prey availability, scavengers' presence and human disturbance, to improve our understanding of lynx predation at a continental scale. We found that inter-kill intervals and handling times varied between populations, social status and in different seasons within the year. We observed marked differences in inter-kill intervals between populations, which do not appear to be driven by variation in handling time. Increases in habitat productivity (expressed by NDVI, used as a proxy for prey availability) resulted in reduced inter-kill intervals (i.e. higher kill rates). We observed less variation in handling (i.e. feeding) times, although presence of dominant scavengers (wild boars and brown bears) and higher human impact led to significantly shorter handling times. This suggests that kleptoparasitism and human disturbance may limit the energetic input that lynx can obtain from their prey. We also observed that the human impact on foraging parameters can be consistent between some populations but context-dependent for others, suggesting local adaptations by lynx. Our study highlights the value of large-scale studies based on standardised datasets, which can aid the implementation of effective management measures, as patterns observed in one area might not be necessarily transferable to other regions. Our results also indicate the high degree of adaptability of these solitary felids, which enables them to meet their energy requirements and persist across a wide range of environmental conditions despite the constraints imposed by humans, dominant scavengers and variable prey availability., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.)

Rehabilitation of injured or immature individuals has become an increasingly used conservation and management tool. However, scientific evaluation of rehabilitations is rare, raising concern about post-release welfare as well as the cost-effectiveness of spending scarce financial resources. Over the past 20 years, events of juvenile Eurasian lynx presumably orphaned have been observed in many European lynx populations. To guide the management of orphaned lynx, we documented survival, rehabilitation and fate after the release and evaluated the potential relevance of lynx orphan rehabilitation for population management and conservation implications. Data on 320 orphaned lynx was collected from 1975 to 2022 from 13 countries and nine populations. The majority of orphaned lynx (55%) were taken to rehabilitation centres or other enclosures. A total of 66 orphans were released back to nature. The portion of rehabilitated lynx who survived at least one year after release was 0.66. Release location was the best predictor for their survival. Of the 66 released lynx, ten have reproduced at least once (8 females and 2 males). Conservation implications of rehabilitation programmes include managing genetic diversity in small, isolated populations and reintroducing species to historical habitats. The lynx is a perfect model species as most reintroduced populations in Central Europe show significantly lower observed heterozygosity than most of the autochthonous populations, indicating that reintroduction bottlenecks, isolation and post-release management have long-term consequences on the genetic composition of populations. The release of translocated orphans could be a valuable contribution to Eurasian lynx conservation in Europe. It is recommended to release orphans at the distribution edge or in the frame of reintroduction projects instead of a release in the core area of a population where it is not necessary from a demographic and genetic point of view. Rehabilitation programmes can have conservation implications that extend far beyond individual welfare benefits., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Molinari-Jobin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This paper presents the evaluation of 36 convolutional neural network (CNN) models, which were trained on the same dataset (ImageNet). The aim of this research was to evaluate the performance of pre-trained models on the binary classification of images in a "real-world" application. The classification of wildlife images was the use case, in particular, those of the Eurasian lynx (lat. "Lynx lynx"), which were collected by camera traps in various locations in Croatia. The collected images varied greatly in terms of image quality, while the dataset itself was highly imbalanced in terms of the percentage of images that depicted lynxes.

Background: Sexual identity is a significant risk factor for triggering symptoms of depression, as well as for suicide attempts in lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) population compared to the heterosexual population. To the best of our knowledge, data on the mental health of LGB persons in Serbia are lacking, and this is the first study to address this problem. The aim of the study was to examine the association between selected determinants and depression, and selected determinants and suicide attempts in LGB and heterosexual populations in the Republic of Serbia, as well as, their differences., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 2015 of 264 heterosexual and LGB respondents using the "snowball sampling" method. We used linear regression analyses to investigate the relationship between socio-demographic variables and different sexual identity categories with PHQ-9 scores. We assessed associations between suicide attempts, and socio-demographic characteristics, sexual identity, depression, and suicidal thoughts using logistic regression., Results: Depression symptoms were higher in female relative to male participants, in participants who were single, divorced or widowed in comparison to currently married, among people with a middle level of education compared to highly educated, and in respondents identified as bisexual or homosexual in comparison to heterosexual. Homosexual and bisexual participants reported suicidal attempts 27 [Odds Ratio (OR) = 27.31] and six times (OR = 6.40) more often than did heterosexual respondents, respectively. Suicide attempts were less frequently reported by single, divorced or widowed participants in comparison to married (OR = 0.25) and those with middle education (OR = 0.38) compared to highly educated., Conclusions: The present study showed that LGB persons in Serbia have significantly more symptoms of depression and suicide attempts compared to heterosexuals. Public health interventions should focus on the early detection of depression and on overcoming prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes. Also, intervention should emphasize that homosexuality and bisexuality are normal, equal and morally acceptable expressions of human sexuality., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.