Nataša Petrović

Sustainable development and public health: rating European countries

BackgroundSustainable development and public health quite strongly correlate, being connected and conditioned by one another. This paper therein attempts to offer a representation of Europe’s current situation of sustainable development in the area of public health.MethodsA dataset on sustainable development in the area of public health consisting of 31 European countries (formally proposed by the European Union Commission and EUROSTAT) has been used in this paper in order to evaluate said issue for the countries listed thereof. A statistical method which synthesizes several indicators into one quantitative indicator has also been utilized. Furthermore, the applied method offers the possibility to obtain an optimal set of variables for future studies of the problem, as well as for the possible development of indicators.ResultsAccording to the results obtained, Norway and Iceland are the two foremost European countries regarding sustainable development in the area of public health, whereas Romania, Lithuania, and Latvia, some of the European Union’s newest Member States, rank lowest. The results also demonstrate that the most significant variables (more than 80%) in rating countries are found to be “healthy life years at birth, females” (r2 = 0.880), “healthy life years at birth, males” (r2 = 0.864), “death rate due to chronic diseases, males” (r2 = 0.850), and “healthy life years, 65, females” (r2 = 0.844).ConclusionsBased on the results of this paper, public health represents a precondition for sustainable development, which should be continuously invested in and improved.After the assessment of the dataset, proposed by EUROSTAT in order to evaluate progress towards the agreed goals of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS), this paper offers an improved set of variables, which it is hoped, may initiate further studies concerning this problem.

Facebook Versus Moodle in Practice

Very few research papers and case studies have shown successful integration of both Facebook and Moodle in the educational experience of students. This study sought to evaluate the educational benefits of the increasingly popular Facebook—which plays an important role in students’ social life as well as their academic life—and to compare it with the widely used course management system Moodle. In this study, the authors surveyed students of the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Organizational Science in Serbia on their attitude toward Facebook and Moodle as productive online tools for teaching and learning. An analysis of the results was carried out using the SPSS software package. The results of this research answer the question of whether or not using Facebook as an educational tool is more effective than using Moodle and how it affects students’ everyday learning activities.

Activities of Antioxidant Enzymes and Monoamine Oxidase-A in the Rat Interscapular Brown Adipose Tissue: Effects of Insulin and 6-Hydroxydopamine

The effects of different doses of insulin (INS) (0.4 or 4.0 IU/kg body mass, i.p., for 3 hr) and 6-hydroxydopamine (6-HDA) (100 mg/kg., i.p.) on the activities of antioxidant enzymes--copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD), manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), catalase (CAT) and catecholamine degrading enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO-A)--in the rat interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT) were studied. In vivo 6-HDA administration, which induces the destruction of sympathetic nerves, markedly reduced IBAT CuZnSOD activity but did not change MnSOD and CAT activities. However, the low dose of INS, which did not induce hypoglycemia, significantly increased the activity of both IBAT mitochondrial enzymes (MnSOD and MAO-A) of control rats. This INS effect on MnSOD was abolished by 6-HDA. On the contrary, CuZnSOD activity was markedly reduced under the influence of INS in both control and 6-HDA-treated rats, whereas for the maintenance of the control level of this enzyme activity, the intact sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is necessary. INS, independent of the dose applied, did not affect CAT activity in control rats, whereas only low INS dose increased the activity of this enzyme in 6-HDA-treated rats. The results indicate that the stimulatory effect of INS on the IBAT mitochondrial enzymes studied is dose dependent and in the case of MnSOD is mediated by SNS. However, the depression in the activity of CuZnSOD is independent of the above-mentioned factors.

The Activities of Antioxidant Enzymes and Monoamine Oxidase and Uncoupling Protein 1 Content in Brown Fat of Hypo‐ and Hyperthyroid Rats

Abstract: We have studied the activities of antioxidant enzymes (AOE), namely, copper‐zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD), manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), and catalase (CAT), and the activity of catecholamine‐degrading enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO) and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) content in brown fat (BF) of hypo‐ and hyperthyroid rats. We found that hypothyroidism decreased BF UCP1 content and increased MAO, MnSOD, and CAT activities. T3 increased UCP1 content and MnSOD activity and decreased CuZnSOD, MAO, and CAT activities, while T4 significantly altered (decreased) only CAT activity. This study shows that UCP1 content and MAO and AOE activities in rat BF are notably affected by changed thyroid status.

Effect of Cold Exposure on Serum DBH and Interscapular Brown Adipose Tissue MAO Activity in Hypothyroid T3- and T4-Treated Rats

Abstract: As the indicators of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) function, the activity of serum dopamine‐β‐hydroxylase (DBH) and interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT) monoamine oxidase (MAO) were examined in rats that were chemically thyroidectomized (TX), treated with thyroid hormones, and exposed to cold (4°C). In TX animals, body temperature (bt) significantly decreased, and relative IBAT mass increased as compared with control, euthyroid animals, independent of the ambient temperature. The bt fall in TX cold‐exposed animals was more severe, provoking hypothermia after 4 h. Under the same experimental conditions, the SNS function was enhanced as judged by the increased serum DBH and IBAT MAO activities. The treatment of TX animals with T4 and T3 re‐established the temperature (bt was at the level of controls) and sympathetic homeostasis (DBH activity was at the level of controls) in animals maintained at room temperature but not in those kept under cold conditions. T4 and T3 did not affect IBAT MAO activity of TX rats: It remained significantly above the control values whether the animals were maintained at room temperature or exposed to cold. In conclusion, the IBAT of TX cold‐exposed rats is incapable of responding to the enhanced thermogenic needs despite the increased SNS activity and thyroid hormone substitution.

EPI: Environmental Feedback on the Organization’s Sustainability

The turning point that was paramount in environmental issues was the publication of the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, as well as the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Sustainable development is a global development management philosophy that aims to conserve the integrity of the Earth’s ecosystems while supporting economic growth and social welfare. The concept of Sustainable Development first appeared in the 1970s and early 1980s (IUCN, 1980) but only came into prominence following the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development report (Seke et al., 2013). Therefore, societies and businesses need to make a drastic shift to a sustainable socio-economic system with fewer negative environmental impacts. The prevailing opinion nowadays is that good environmental performance makes good business and organization sense.

The model of risk assessment of greywater discharges from the Danube River ships

Having in mind the immense value of the Danube River and knowing that risk assessment of its pollution is one of the key elements for ecology and the health of people in its region, in this paper we emphasized the importance of risk assessment of ship-generated wastewater – particularly in the case of greywater discharges. Although, a number of methods for measuring and analysing different environmental risks have been developed, previous research shows that the failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) method is applicable in solving environmental issues. Therefore, we conducted our research with the main purpose to develop a model of FMEA method application for assessing the risks of ship-generated greywater discharges based on estimated data for total quantity of greywater, the size of the exposed population to the pollution of greywater and the possibilities of this pollution detection. Risk analysis was performed on official data for nine ports on the Danube River on inland waterways of the Republic of Serbia. Based on the obtained results, we concluded that measures, recommendations and risk prevention strategies for ship-generated greywater discharges should go into two major directions: (1) decreasing the pollution caused by greywater discharges; (2) increasing the number of water quality monitoring stations.

THE EXPRESSION OF MUSCLE ANKYRIN REPEAT PROTEINS IN BROWN ADIPOSE TISSUE

MARP family members CARP, Ankrd2 and DARP are expressed in the striated muscle, while DARP protein is also detected in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Taking into account recent findings concerning the ...