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The paper presents the module for automatic prosody generation within a system for automatic synthesis of high-quality speech based on arbitrary text in Hebrew. The high quality of synthesis is due to the high accuracy of automatic prosody generation, enabling the introduction of elements of natural sentence prosody of Hebrew. Automatic morphological annotation of text is based on the application of an expert algorithm relying on transformational rules. Syntactic-prosodic parsing is also rule based, while the generation of the acoustic representation of prosodic features is based on classification and regression trees. A tree structure generated during the training phase enables accurate prediction of the acoustic representatives of prosody, namely, durations of phonetic segments as well as temporal evolution of fundamental frequency and energy. Such an approach to automatic prosody generation has lead to an improvement in the quality of synthesized speech, as confirmed by listening tests. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR 32035]

One of the oldest churches in Kastoria, dedicated to Taxiarches Michael, is specially revered due to his role on Judgement Day. On the south facade there was painted a series of deceased prominent members of the old society that continued its life under the Ottoman rule with no major disturbances. These extraordinary portraits, with their noble appearance, rich clothing and inscriptions accompanying them, are a valuable source of knowledge of the situation and artistic activity in the first half of the fifteenth century.

Based on current published and unpublished research results, a total of 16 vertebrate species members of mammal (Mammalia), bird (Aves) and osteichthyes (Osteichthyes) classes have been registered at 11 archaeological sites from the Roman Period in Vojvodina. Mammals dominate with 12 species and one genus, birds are present with 3 species, and osteichthyes with one. From the Migration Period, at 9 sites, 22 vertebrate species have been registered, of which 13 species and one genus of mammals, 4 species and one genus of birds, and 5 species from the Osteichthyes class. At 8 sites from the Medieval Period, 16 vertebrate species have been registered. Mammals are the most numerous class with 10 species and one genus, while birds are present with 4 species and one genus. Furthermore, two species of osteichthyes have also been registered.

Relying on post-Byzantine tradition, eleven painters from five generations of the Dimitrijević-Rafailović family, accompanied by Maksim Tujković, painted several thousand icons and several hundred iconostases between the late seventeenth and the second half of the nineteenth century. They worked in major Orthodox Christian monasteries in Montenegro, Kosovo and Metohija, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dalmatia, but their works can mostly be found in modest village churches in the Bay of Kotor (Cattaro) and on the South Adriatic coast. The decoration of these churches was financially supported by the local population headed by elders. Along with a reconstruction of their biographies and a chronological overview of their major works, this paper seeks to trace stylistic changes in the Bay of Kotor school of icon-painting. While simply varying a thematic repertory established in earlier periods, the painters from the Bay of Kotor were gradually introducing new details and themes adopted from Western European Baroque art under indirect influences coming from the monastery of Hilandar, Corfu, Venice and Russia. This process makes this indigenous school of icon-painting, which spanned almost two centuries, comparable to the work of Serbian traditional religious painters (zografs) and illuminators active north of the Sava and Danube rivers after the Great Migration of the Serbs (1690). Despite differences between the two, which resulted from different cultural and historical circumstances in which Serbs lived under Ottoman, Venetian and Habsburg rules, similarities in iconography and style, which were inspired by an urge to counteract proselytic pressures, are considerably more important.

This study investigated the influence of lectures about the Renaissance and abstract art on ratings of paintings from these two periods in art history. The study included two sessions. In the first, 72 naive participants rated the representational and abstract paintings. In the second session participants were divided into three groups: one received a lecture on Renaissance art, one attended a lecture on abstract art, and one group attended no lecture. Afterwards, the three groups rated a new, parallel set of paintings. Three first-order factors were extracted: Aesthetic experience, Relaxation tone, and Arousal. However, the higher order General Aesthetic Experience factor explained a much higher amount of variance than the first-order factors, indicating its strong and generalized influence on naïve participants’ experience with artworks. After the lecture on abstract art the participants rated paintings, especially abstract, as more aesthetically pleasing than the participants who attended the lecture on Renaissance art or the group without a lecture. Proposed explanation for this is that the naïve observers` ratings of abstract paintings are more susceptible to the influence of style-related information. When rating abstract artwork naïve observers may be significantly influenced by additional information gathered outside of the artwork.

A survey is given of the development of electrochemistry with an author’s non-hidden wish for more advanced development in future. The survey is based on past achievements of electrochemistry listed shortly here. As far as the recent state is concerned, dissatisfaction is expressed with the acceptance of electrochemistry both as profession of graduated students, and a priority field in financing research, as well. For the sake of truth an alternative view is mentioned that takes the recent state of electrochemistry as normal and in accordance with the usual course of development, (i.e. birth, rise, achieving of maximum and then decay, fading, etc.), that is common in the nature. This statement is based on a belief that today electrochemistry exists on a broader basis than before, and is mainly incorporated in other (new) branches of chemistry and science. Examples are given where recent electrochemistry failed to fulfill the promises (e.g., production of cheap hydrogen by means of electrocatalysts with high performance for H2 evolution, economical use of large scale fuel cells, etc.). In summarizing the recent fields of interest that covers electrochemistry, it is stressed out their diversification, specialization, complexness and interdisciplinary nature. A list of desirable highlights that could possibly help electrochemistry to improve its rating among other science branches is composed. Also, a list of author’s personal preferences is given.

Following the shift in therapy of tuberculosis in the mid-19th century, by the beginning of the 20th century numerous tuberculosis sanatoria were established in Western Europe. Being an institutional novelty in the medical practice, sanatoria spread within the first 20 years of the 20th century to Central and Eastern Europe, including the southern region of the Panonian plain, the present-day Province of Vojvodina in Serbia north of the rivers Sava and Danube. The health policy and regulations of the newly built state - the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians/Yugoslavia, provided a rather liberal framework for introducing the concept of sanatorium. Soon after the World War I there were 14 sanatoria in this region, and the period of their expansion was between 1920 and 1939 when at least 27 sanatoria were founded, more than half of the total number of 46 sanatoria in the whole state in that period. However, only two of these were for pulmonary diseases. One of them was privately owned the open public sanatorium the English-Yugoslav Hospital for Paediatric Osteo-Articular Tuberculosis in Sremska Kamenica, and the other was state-run (at Iriški venac, on the Fruška Gora mountain, as a unit of the Department for Lung Disease of the Main Regional Hospital). All the others were actually small private specialized hospitals in 6 towns (Novi Sad, Subotica, Sombor, Vrbas, Vršac, Pančevo,) providing medical treatment of well-off, mostly gynaecological and surgical patients. The majority of sanatoria founded in the period 1920-1939 were in or close to the city of Novi Sad, the administrative headquarters of the province (the Danube Banovina at that time) with a growing population. A total of 10 sanatoria were open in the city of Novi Sad, with cumulative bed capacity varying from 60 to 130. None of these worked in newly built buildings, but in private houses adapted for medical purpose in accordance with legal requirements. The decline of sanatoria in Vojvodina began with the very outbreak of the World War II and they never regained their social role. Soon after the Hungarian fascist occupation the majority of owners/ founders were terrorized and forced to close their sanatoria, some of them to leave country and some were even killed or deported to concentration camps.

After decades-long vertebrate fauna research, out of 42 archaeological sites in Vojvodina (Serbia) from different periods ranging from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, remains of birds were registered at 17 sites (4 from the Neolithic, 1 from the Early Iron Age, 7 from the Late Iron Age, 5 from the Roman Period, 1 from the Migration Period, and 4 from the Middle Ages). A total of 14 species and 4 genera were registered for this vertebrate class. The richest ornithofauna is from the Neolithic, where 9 species and 3 genera were registered. The Migration and Medieval periods are next with 4 registered species and one genus each. There were 3 species registered from the Roman Period, and 2 species from the Late Iron Age. The poorest ornitofauna was registered from the Early Iron Age, only one species.

Based on current published and unpublished research results, a total of 34 vertebrate species from 4 classes have been registered at 9 archaeological sites from the Early Iron Age in Vojvodina (Serbia). The most numerous one is the mammal class (Mammalia) with 22 species, then osteichthyes class (Osteichthyes) with 10 species, while birds (Aves) and reptiles (Reptilia) are repsented with one species each. From the Late Iron Age, at 14 archaeological sites, a total of 21 species were registered, of which 16 belong to the mammal class (Mammalia), birds (Aves) are represented by 2 species, and osteichthyes (Osteichthyes) by 3 species.

Vine-growing and winemaking in the area of the Roman province of Upper Moesia are looked at based on the information supplied by the ancient sources, and the archaeological and epigraphic evidence (inscriptions, artistic depictions, vinedressing and winemaking implements, drinking and transport vessels). Viniculture is associated with the Greco-Roman cultural orbit, while the native central-Balkan tribes typically consumed alcoholic beverages made from cereals. Therefore the goal of the research is to shed as much light as currently possible on the significance of vine-growing and wine in the life of the inhabitants of Upper Moesia. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177012: Society, spiritual and material culture and communications in prehistory and early history of the Balkans]