Suchergebnisse

Researches in population policy evolution carried out in our country showed
that there were oscillations in its development, it was not consistent and
based on recognized scientific principles, and most of all its measures were
not of long term duration. At the end of the twentieth century the
population policy gained in importance by the establishment of certain
organs of the highest level of authority as well as by introducing measures
which took into consideration the needs of parents for the encouragement of
giving birth and even more the support in raising children. In that context,
public institutions for children were recognized as important carriers of
population policy which aims were: the lower economic parental costs, the
better functioning of the institutional system, the better use of all
resources in its domain, and changes for the better in all aspects of life.
The preschool institutions played the significant role in this. Ten years
ago in Vojvodina a research about the preschool institutions in Vojvodina
was conducted taking into consideration elements relevant to the population
policy - the number of these institutions, their capacities and network,
human resources, forms of activity, working hours, the inclusion of
children, waiting period for enrolment in nurseries and kindergartens, plans
for the increase in number of children and the capacities of child care
centres, and the way of identifying the needs for different forms of
activity and services. The aim of this paper is to present the results of
the follow-up study of the identical research conducted ten years after the
first one. The results show that changes are slow and that great
opportunities of preschool institutions in population policy are not
considered to an adequate degree by competent authorities.

Unlike other institutions, preschool institutions are the only ones that support and encourage complete psycho-physical and social development of small children. Preschool institutions provide safety and upbringing, as well as take care, educate, socialize, and compensate different upbringing. In addition to the above-mentioned, they also provide necessary food and relaxation space in adequately equipped and set premises for children's upbringing. Preschool institutions have direct contacts with parents with small children, and with children. Therefore, by completing their tasks and carrying out proposed activities they can influence creation of a better ambient for the increase of birth rate. The aim of this article is to analyze the elements of such complex activities in order to review the role of those institutions within the population policy of Vojvodina. It is about the capacities (purposely built and adopted premises) inside and outside of the administrative municipalities, human resources, work activities, work hours, range of children, waiting lists, the ways of identification of needs for the work activities and services provided, as well as the inclusion of those institutions in the population policy of respective municipalities. The article represents a contribution to emphasize the necessity to activate available potentials of the population policy and to search for new solutions. .

Taking into consideration the roles it objectively has, the state is also responsible for the formulation and implementation of population policy. In the process of its articulation, population policy of our state, although not explicitly formulated, continual and consistent, went through various phases of development, but was mostly in the shadow of other policies. In order to be successful, population policy has to be local, too. The need for definition and implementation of local population policy is indicated by insufficiency and inefficiency of government measures, knowledge of determinants of reproductive behavior and social processes, especially society democratization and globalization. The possibilities available are not sufficiently used. The attention is focused on the measures of material assistance, which is understandable in present conditions, while the measures of non-material assistance are almost missing. The paper is pointing out the non-material potentials and the necessity of their activation. The paper also contains the results of an empiric research carried out by interviewing the presidents of the population policy committees within municipal assemblies in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, thus providing the picture of the present situation, and knowledge of their positions, opinions and suggestions for the better use of potentials and overcoming of limitations in population policy.

Local self-management, in its contemporary meaning, arose in the time modern
state was created, at the transition from feudalism into capitalism. In the
nineteenth and twentieth century, local self-management, in Europe above
all, became a part of the uniform system of state government which had the
following characteristics: the existence of proper territories,
organizational independence of local institutions, the existence of certain
financial and normative independence and the rights of citizens to freely
choose in it a representative body or to directly decide on important
matters of interest for the local community. The development of local
self-management in our country has its roots as early as the Turkish rule,
in the existence of principalities, at the end of the eighteenth century. In
modern times, by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from 1990, a
single-level local self-management was established and within it special
decisions for cities. The district is the basic unit of local
self-management in Serbia which has two kinds of jurisdiction:
self-management or authentic and transferred or decentralized. The system of
social care of children, by which certain goals of social and population
policy of the state are achieved, recognizes two kinds of affairs which
local self-management can carry out: authentic and entrusted. Authentic
affairs refer to the institutions for children - preschool institutions and
children?s recreation centers over which local self-management has all
foundation rights. Entrusted affairs of local self-management are making
decisions, in the first degree, on the rights of citizens which has the
characteristic of rights of general interest. In the carrying out of its
authentic and entrusted affairs and authorities, local self-management takes
into consideration, through the Law on social care of children and sublaw
acts, the regulated norms and standards for carrying out the activities of
children?s institutions and realizing the rights of citizens. Apart from
authentic and entrusted affairs, local self-management has the right,
according to the Law on social care of children, to determine other rights
as well in the system of social care of children, a greater scope of rights
and more favorable terms for realization of rights, as well as other forms
of social care of children, if it provides the funds. However, this
supposition can hardly be realized, due to insufficiency of funds as well as
adequate organization and competent expert work.

Population should be in the central focus of local community institutions and
the local community may constitute its population policy which will
supplement state population policy measures, considering the local specific
various traditions, values and models of living. The paper's basic goal is to
critically perceive the characteristics, significance and role of local
self-governments in the current population policy of Serbia. Social situation
and social policy characteristics in Serbia are analyzed in the context of
the population policy. It is pointed out that poverty, unemployment, the
economic crisis, the process of privatization, the issue of system
decentralization and social expectations of the population, as current
expressions of transition, all have a consequence on the demographic
development and population policy. A critical estimation of the activities in
the field of population policies which are carried out by local and
provincial self-governments in Serbia in the last decade are brought into
focus, with a special review to the activities of provincial and local
governments in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. As a result of the
analysis it is pointed out that the population and social policy measures
have been separated since the year 2000 and that they have been directed only
to stimulating births and not child raising and that solutions regarding
maternity leave brought improvements, however shortened maternity leave for
the third child. The new conception of the population policy brought a whole
series of restrictions such as: suspension of aid for newborn essentials;
discontinuance of the right to maternity allowance; abolishing of
compensation for preschool expenses for the third child; children?s allowance
lost its population measures character along with considerable tightening of
the census and decreasing of amount; the activities of preschool facilities
have been reduced only to an educational function, and the terms for
realizing rights to preschool education for children without parents and
children with special needs have been tightened. The authors point out to the
values and principles on which a contemporary population policy of local
self-governments in Serbia should be established, such as: stability of
established measures, a clear message on the needs of society, compatibility
and not uniformity with measures of other bodies, compassion and uniformity
with aspirations of couples and individuals, respect for the rights and
freedom of man, information availability, equality of birth and raising
children in measures. The establishment of population policy municipality
funds is suggested and that local population policy measures are both
material and non-material type, as well as in the form of organizational
measures which could use the existing resources in a better way. The
municipal assembly should create organizational suppositions by appointing a
Population Policy Commission as its permanent body. The Commission would
propose to the Municipal Assembly to adopt a strategic document - the
Population Policy Strategy in the municipality. The Municipality Assembly
should adopt the Action Plan for carrying out of the population policy every
year, which would define the measures, bearers, terms and methods of
evaluating measures with a plan for the following year. The population policy
of the local self-government should be a constant process which manages,
follows and evaluates, which is public and which understands the engagement
of competent people, participation of citizens-volunteers and civil
organizations.

Deep-sea ecosystems are reservoirs of biodiversity that are largely unexplored, but their exploration and biodiscovery are becoming a reality thanks to biotechnological advances (e.g., omics technologies) and their integration in an expanding network of marine infrastructures for the exploration of the seas, such as cabled observatories. While still in its infancy, the application of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding approaches is revolutionizing marine biodiversity monitoring capability. Indeed, the analysis of eDNA in conjunction with the collection of multidisciplinary optoacoustic and environmental data, can provide a more comprehensive monitoring of deep-sea biodiversity. Here, we describe the potential for acquiring eDNA as a core component for the expanding ecological monitoring capabilities through cabled observatories and their docked Internet Operated Vehicles (IOVs), such as crawlers. Furthermore, we provide a critical overview of four areas of development: (i) Integrating eDNA with optoacoustic imaging; (ii) Development of eDNA repositories and cross-linking with other biodiversity databases; (iii) Artificial Intelligence for eDNA analyses and integration with imaging data; and (iv) Benefits of eDNA augmented observatories for the conservation and sustainable management of deep-sea biodiversity. Finally, we discuss the technical limitations and recommendations for future eDNA monitoring of the deep-sea. It is hoped that this review will frame the future direction of an exciting journey of biodiscovery in remote and yet vulnerable areas of our planet, with the overall aim to understand deep-sea biodiversity and hence manage and protect vital marine resources. ; This research has been funded within the framework of the following project activities: ARIM (Autonomous Robotic Sea-Floor Infrastructure for Benthopelagic Monitoring; MarTERA ERA-Net Cofound); RESBIO (TEC2017-87861-R; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades); JERICO-S3: (Horizon 2020; Grant Agreement no. 871153); ENDURUNS (Research Grant Agreement H2020-MG-2018-2019-2020 n.824348); Slovenian Research Agency (Research Core Funding Nos. P1-0237 and P1-0255 and project ARRS-RPROJ-JR-J1-3015). We also profited of the funding from the Spanish Government through the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) and Italian Ministry of Education (MIUR) under the "Bando premiale FOE 2015" (nota prot. N. 850, dd. 27 ottobre 2017) with the project EarthCruisers "EARTH's CRUst Imagery for Investigating Seismicity, Volcanism, and Marine Natural Resources in the Sicilian Offshore". Ocean Networks Canada was funded through Canada Foundation for Innovation-Major Science Initiative (CFI-MSI) fund 30199. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (published version)