No abstract

In this study, we aimed to identify the factors of the greatest impact on the banking sector liquidity in order to support agricultural business. The main goal of the research is based on the assessment of whether and how the variation of macroeconomic factors affect the exposure of the banking sector to liquidity risk, which is determined by the willingness of the banking sector to respond to the growing financial needs of agriculture. By using the appropriate statistical methods such as correlation and multiple regression analysis, we obtained significant results that can form the basis for monitoring and measuring il/liquidity of the banking sector in relation to the real agricultural sector. The obtained results confirm inflation and unemployment rates as determinants of liquidity in the banking sector. More importantly, this can help to plan, i.e. predict the funds for agricultural sector.

Milk and dairy products are the oldest and most widely consumed nutritious foods worldwide. They are highlighted as a source of high-quality proteins and the most important sources of bioactive peptides. Milk proteins have high nutritive value and remarkable medicinal properties. They are known as potential health-promoting ingredients of functional foods, and the dairy industry has already commercialized many milk proteins and peptide-based products which can be consumed as part of a regular daily diet. Besides, cheese is highly susceptible to contamination by pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, which results in a decrease in its shelf life and cause serious risks to the consumers’ health. Nowadays, the food industry is continuously becoming more specialized towards meeting consumer needs and demands. Consumers demand safe products, which are also preferably free of synthetic additives. Therefrom to the need to search for natural additives has emerged. Botanicals and their extracts came to an interest as a natural alternative for cheese preservation and quality enhancer. Some substances have demonstrated good effects against most pathogens of cheese such as Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella spp. Nevertheless, it is not quite clear do the botanical addition affect cheese quality characteristics. This review aims to present the effect of added botanicals such as medicinal plants, herbs, spices and essential oils to cheeses in the function of protection against pathogens and spoilage microorganisms, as well as for their influence on the cheese quality.

Managing and determination of the blood lipid profile and oxidative status are useful tool to show the influence of foreign chemical substances on production of dairy cows. Investigation of various biomarkers of oxidative stress related to various problems in the production dairy cows presents a very important issue. The aim of this research was to investigate different biological markers in two different breeds of dairy cows – the Holstein Friesian and the Simmental, during different stages of lactation. The total of 60 Holstein Friesian and Simmental cows were divided into two treatments (HF and S) which was further divided into three groups each, respectively. Lactating groups of each cow breed was divided into three stages at early lactation of 32-75 days (HF1 and S1), peak lactation of 80-165 days (HF2 and S2) and low lactation of 175 days onward (HF3 and S3). During the research the total milk production and the percentage of milk fat and protein were determined. Blood samples were collected from jugular vein of each cow, the serum was harvested without anticoagulant and stored at -20 °C in small aliquots till further analysis. Serum was then analyzed for triglyceride, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, AST, ALT, GGT, the total antioxidant status (TAS), the total oxidant status (TOS), MDA, SOD, catalase and paraoxonase (PON1). Significantly (P<0.05) higher values of cholesterol, TOS and SOD at peak lactation stage was observed in all cows. A gradual decline from early lactation to low lactation was observed in the values of triglycerides and ALT, while MDA gradually increased from the same stage in all cows. The values of LDL and catalase showed an irregular pattern of variations in various lactation stages among all groups. The Holstein Friesian breed showed significantly higher values of ALT and PON1, while values of HDL, TAS and TOS were the lowest in Simmental group (P<0.05). By measuring the signs of oxidative stress, it was concluded that metabolic efforts of cows during the peak of lactation affected the investigated parameters. Disturbance in feed intake and rise in metabolic processes lift up oxidative stress in cows, especially during the peak of lactation, which might be determined by monitoring blood alterations. Results of our study indicated that the Holstein Friesian breed was under higher oxidative stress during different lactation stages compared to Simmental dairy cows.

The ICT sector has been recognized as a sector with great potential for the growth and development of the economy of the Republic of Serbia. This initiated the need to analyze the strategic aspect of the ICT sector intellectual capital concept. The purpose of the paper is to empirically test the impact of intellectual capital on business performance within the ICT sector. The research was conducted on a sample of 611 employees in ICT sector companies in the Republic of Serbia. The partial least squares method was used to model the structural equations for analysis of the primary data and testing of the hypotheses. The findings show a positive and statistically significant relationship between individual components of intellectual capital and the business performance of ICT companies, which confirms the hypotheses. Human capital proved to have the strongest influence on the business performance of ICT companies. This paper provides new scientific knowledge which can contribute to creating long-term strategies that shall focus on more sophisticated management of intellectual capital, compared to the traditional tasks of allocating resources of the organization. The findings may be of interest to other sectors stakeholders to provide deeper understanding on intellectual capital as an essential source of companies’ competitive advantage that can positively impact business performance.