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The quality of the sea is one of the most important factors according to which tourists decide whether to visit a particular coastal destination. The model for predicting the occurrence of microbiological contaminants must include data on both environmental factors and the economic activity of the coastal area. In recent years, we have observed the occurrence of extreme events both in nature and in society. In this work, we analyze the impact of extreme events (heavy rainfall, drought, extremely limited economic activity due to the pandemic COVID -19) on the occurrence of bacteriological contaminants on the selected beaches of the Liburnian area (Adriatic Sea, Croatia).This work was supported by the University of Rijeka under the project number: uniri-pr-prirod-19-24.

A comprehensive summary of the measurements made to characterize test-mass charging due to the space environment during the LISA Pathfinder mission is presented. Measurements of the residual charge of the test mass after release by the grabbing and positioning mechanism show that the initial charge of the test masses was negative after all releases, leaving the test mass with a potential in the range from -12 to -512. Variations in the neutral test-mass charging rate between 21.7 and 30.7 e s-1 were observed over the course of the 17-month science operations produced by cosmic ray flux changes including a Forbush decrease associated with a small solar energetic particle event. A dependence of the cosmic ray charging rate on the test-mass potential between -30.2 and -40.3 e s-1 V-1 was observed resulting in an equilibrium test-mass potential between 670 and 960 mV, and this is attributed to a contribution to charging from low-energy electrons emitted from the gold surfaces of the gravitational reference sensor. Data from the onboard particle detector show a reliable correlation with the charging rate and with other environmental monitors of the cosmic ray flux. This correlation is exploited to extrapolate test-mass charging rates to a 20-year period giving useful insight into the expected range of charging rate that may be observed in the LISA mission., Physical Review D, 107 (6), ISSN:1550-7998, ISSN:0556-2821, ISSN:1550-2368

The free movement of labor is beside the free movement of goods, services, and capital one of the four essential freedoms of movement in the European Union (EU) and is considered the cornerstone of convergence policy. These freedoms are necessary both for the coherence of the EU's internal market and for the efficient functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Migrations are not only an economic issue but also a cultural and political one. People are mostly voting with their feet for economic reasons, but this trend was reinforced by recent waves of political migration to Europe from volatile North African regions following the Arab Spring movement and wars in Iraq, Syria, and lately also from Ukraine. Without political motives for migration in mind, migrants in Southeastern European countries have mostly an economic agenda. There is a huge amount of literature discussing the pros and cons of migration from both perspectives: emigration and immigration countries. The quantitative analyses are mostly inconsistent and disagree with their conclusions. This paper attempts to go back to the basic theoretical deductive-nomological approach without any prejudice regarding migration directions. This paper is at the same time the theoretical beginning but also the result of a project regarding migrations: their reasons and their consequences.

This article analyzes examples of good traffic management practices in several European cities. The practices analyzed relate to providing more accurate information about public transport arrivals, optimizing demand for crosswalks, reducing congestion in urban areas, and reducing demand for trips to parking lots in the city center. Smart mobility projects such as CEKOM Connected Traffic create high-quality urban transport solutions and promote innovative, sustainable, clean and energy-efficient transport modes. The aim of this paper is to present the positive results of different traffic management methods that lead to better traffic flow, less congestion, lower primary energy consumption and less pollutant emissions. The activities of this scientific research project are related to the development of innovative urban and multimodal solutions in the city of Rijeka. The primary outcome indicator will be a platform for aggregating data for urban mobility and transport decision making. The scope of the platform envisions more efficient use of public- private infrastructure, resources, and assets in the field of transport. In addition, it was necessary to accurately measure traffic, meteorological and environmental parameters in the city of Rijeka to protect the environment, increase safety and achieve sustainability of the transport system in the urban area. As part of the research activities of the Connected Traffic project, a prototype solution for traffic simulations has been developed. The aim of the simulations is to show how the use of innovative methods in the context of intelligent solutions can manage traffic in urban areas. The purpose of the simulation is to test innovative scenarios and standard operating procedures for decision support.

Karst encompasses about 50% of the Croatian land territory. The major part of the Croatian karst belongs to the Dinaric Karst and is found at the Adriatic Sea coastline. Carbonate aquifers are the primary source of freshwater in those areas and their protection is of the highest priority. Karst aquifers are sensitive to pollution since pollutants easily enter the groundwater channel system without prior self-purification process that is characteristic for other types of the aquifers. Once pollutants enter the karstic underground they spread through the aquifer very quickly. Therefore, a thorough knowledge of the karst aquifer is essential for a timely and appropriate reaction to possible pollution incidents. Complexity of the karst landforms and groundwater networks requires implementation of a standard hydrogeological monitoring as well as unconventional methods of investigation. Analysis of stable water isotopes 2H and 18O proved to be helpful complementing method to a standard hydrogeological karst studies. We present the results of a two-year systematic analysis of the stable isotope composition of the coastal karst spring Dobrica in the Bakar Bay and rain water collected in the hinterland of the spring. Dobrica is one of the springs under supervision from the local water supply company but it is rarely in use due to sea water intrusions related to rainfall regimes, recharge conditions and sea tides. Occasional contaminations by saline seawater require additional research to better understand Dobrica’s functioning mechanisms. Spring water samples were collected on a weekly basis and rain samples were collected once a month. The stable isotope composition of the karst groundwater was modelled using Gaussian mixture modelling, time series analysis and autoregressive integrated moving average modelling. The main results of the study are: winter precipitation dominates the spring’s recharge, presence of a multiple water masses in the system, mean residence time up to one year and lower mean recharge elevation in comparison to bordering Rječina River catchment.

Modern sovereign money is accepted as an institution in virtue of the collective intentionality of the acceptance of the sovereign status function declaration it being the official currency of a country. A status function declaration may not create money it may only create a currency. How does one test the fact that an official currency also has all the properties of money? We propose a rather simple test based on the Granger causality of the acceptance of a currency in virtue of money if, and only if, the allocation function of its market interest rate is not rejected. This condition is fulfilled if the interest rate is its genuine allocator. This is the case if the changes in quantity cause the change in the interest rate as a price of money i.e. its true opportunity cost. We find that market interest rate changes are Granger caused by changes in quantities of traded euros on the overnight banking market but not by changes in the quantity of traded Croatian kuna. Thus, the Croatian kuna is only the domestic currency of Croatia, and the euro is its true money.

The highest average annual rainfall in Croatia is in the Northern Adriatic, with some parts of the region receiving more than 2000 mm per year. Characteristics of the region’s weather are periods of intense rain alternating with dry periods in which the amount of precipitation can be negligible for more than a month. The area's water supply relies on karst groundwater sources that are primarily fed by Mediterranean precipitation. The aforementioned precipitation regime results in high groundwater yields in the cold part of the hydrological year and substantially decreased water quantities in the summer months. Under such specific conditions, it is of considerable importance to find out about the potential for climate change in order to ensure timely adjustment of the management and use of natural sources of water. We present a comparison of the isotopic composition of precipitation collected on the mountain Učka in periods 2008-2011 and 2019-2020. Rain gauges were located on a vertical gradient from sea level up to nearly 1400 m. Unlike the isotopic altitude effect that did not change significantly compared to the one reported for the first period (Roller- Lutz et al, 2013), the weighted means of isotopic values were more positive in the second period. For the cold part of the hydrological year, local meteoric water line has recently moved to higher values, indicating the sources of precipitation from drier Mediterranean regions. Local meteoric water line for the warm part of the last hydrological year, indicates presence of increased evaporation and thus confirms lower precipitation amounts.

Regional value chains (RVCs) are an important indicator of regional trade, economic integration and development. Due to regionalization of production, instead of globalization of production, more and more production is taking place in RVCs. We used the UNCTAD-Eora database to obtain the values of the basic RVC indicator: domestic value added (DVA) included in a country's exports. We analyze the regional value chains in Croatia and its neighbouring countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. We performed a Panel Estimated Generalised Least Squares analysis with weights for cross-sectional fixed effects, weights for cross-sectional EGLS, covariance method for white cross-sectional coefficients and correction for degrees of freedom to obtain a more efficient estimation of coefficients and to correct for heteroscedasticity or autocorrelation in the residuals. The results of the panel EGLS show a statistically significant relationship between the change in value added (VA) of neighbouring Croatian countries and the change in Croatian VA (R2=0.73, p 0.0001). The results suggest that Croatia's linkages with neighbouring countries in RVCs are statistically significant, even though the extent of these linkages is of very small magnitude

We report on the first subpicometer interferometer flown in space. It was part of ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder mission and performed the fundamental measurement of the positional and angular motion of two free-falling test masses. The interferometer worked immediately, stably, and reliably from switch on until the end of the mission with exceptionally low residual noise of 32.0+2.4−1.7 fm/√Hz, significantly better than required. We present an upper limit for the sensor performance at millihertz frequencies and a model for the measured sensitivity above 200 mHz., Physical Review Letters, 126 (13), ISSN:0031-9007, ISSN:1079-7114

After a detailed analysis of each railroad route alternative, the problem of route evaluation in the process of planning and designing is reduced to making a decision concerning its optimal selection. In this article the authors emphasize the significance of the reconstruction of the railroad route connection for the development of the North Adriatic Ports, Rijeka, Koper and Trieste. The most important project related to North Adriatic Port’s railway transport system is the construction of a new high-efficiency railroad which will connect the ports of Rijeka, Koper and Trieste. The construction of a new high- efficiency railway will create a significant shortening of railroad links of South East Europe with its central and western parts and will improve the conditions of traffic exploitation of the North Adriatic transport route. The objective of this paper is to show that the application of the multi-criteria analysis can lead to conclusions regarding the evaluation and selection of the appropriate railroad transport route. In order to fulfill the research objective, a model comprising criteria and sub-criteria for railroad route evaluation is defined. The proposed model was used for the evaluation of the railway route Rijeka- Koper-Trieste by applying the PROMETHEE II method for multi-criteria ranking of alternatives.

Warehousing and transportation support activities are an important part of the overall transportation sector. COVID-19 outbreak requires a prediction of future risks contingent in the overall economic predicament. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the analysis of possible adverse effects of this crisis on the Warehousing activity. We analysed a 10-year panel from 2008 to 2017 of 13 latest European Union member countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia, and their data representing the “Warehousing and support activities for transportation” of the overall “Transportation and storage sector”. We differenced the data to achieve stationarity and to lose the idiosyncratic effects present in the coefficients. We regressed the variables representing the overall economy on warehousing and transportation support activities. The null hypothesis of no-causation may be rejected for most causal conjectures with three successive test methods: Panel Pairwise Granger Causality test, Panel Estimated Generalized Least Squares with Fixed Effects, and Panel Generalized Method of Moments with First Differences. We conclude the changes in the overall economy have an impact on warehousing and transportation support activities in terms of its value added

Following the selection of The Gravitational Universe by ESA, and the successful flight of LISA Pathfinder, the LISA Consortium now proposes a 4 year mission in response to ESA's call for missions for L3. The observatory will be based on three arms with six active laser links, between three identical spacecraft in a triangular formation separated by 2.5 million km. LISA is an all-sky monitor and will offer a wide view of a dynamic cosmos using Gravitational Waves as new and unique messengers to unveil The Gravitational Universe. It provides the closest ever view of the infant Universe at TeV energy scales, has known sources in the form of verification binaries in the Milky Way, and can probe the entire Universe, from its smallest scales near the horizons of black holes, all the way to cosmological scales. The LISA mission will scan the entire sky as it follows behind the Earth in its orbit, obtaining both polarisations of the Gravitational Waves simultaneously, and will measure source parameters with astrophysically relevant sensitivity in a band from below $10^{-4}\,$Hz to above $10^{-1}\,$Hz., Submitted to ESA on January 13th in response to the call for missions for the L3 slot in the Cosmic Vision Programme

AGU Fall Meeting 2019 in San Francisco , 9-13 December 2019, EIS/InSIght team, InSight is the first planetary mission with a seismometer package, SEIS, since the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package. SEIS is complimented by APSS, which has as a goal to document the atmospheric source of seismic noise and signals. Since June 2019, SEIS has been delivering 6 axis 20 sps continuous seismic data, a rate one order of magnitude larger originally planned. More than 50 events have been detected by the end of July 2019 but only three have amplitudes significantly above the SEIS instrument requirement. Two have clear and coherent arrivals of P and S waves, enabling location, diffusion/attenuation characterization and receiver function analysis. The event¿s magnitudes are likely ¿ 3 and no clear surface waves nor deep interior phases have been identified. This suggests deep events with scattering along their final propagation paths and with large propagation differences as compared to Earth and Moon quakes. Most of the event¿s detections are made possible due to the very low noise achieved by the instrument installation strategy and the very low VBB self-noise. Most of the SEIS signals have amplitudes of spectral densities in the 0.03-5Hz frequency bandwidth ranging from 10-10 m/s2/Hz1/2 to 5 10-9 m/s2/Hz1/2. The smallest noise levels occurs during the early night, with angstrom displacements or nano-radian tilts. This monitors the elastic and seismic interaction of a planetary surface with its atmosphere, illustrated not only by a wide range of SEIS signals correlated with pressure vortexes, dust devils or wind activity but also by modulation of resonances above 1 Hz, amplified by ultra-low velocity surface layers. After about one half of a Martian year, clear seasonal changes appear also in the noise, which will be discussed. One year after landing, the seismic noise is therefore better and better understood, and noise correction techniques begun to be implemented, either thanks to the APSS wind and pressure sensors, or by SEIS only data processing techniques. These data processing techniques open not only the possibility of better signal to noise ratio of the events, but are also used for various noise auto-correlation techniques as well as searches of long period signals. Noise and seismic signals on Mars are therefore completely different from what seismology encountered previously on Earth and Moon.

The paper shows the determinants of passenger transportation to and off major Croatian islands based on correlations. Due to lacking time series, we use the simplest statistical associations based on cross-section correlation. The results show that major determinants of passenger transportation to and off Croatian islands are the number of island inhabitants, the number of registered tourist arrivals, as well as the number of registered beds, while the number of vehicles transported to the islands is statistically associated to the economic activity on the island represented by total on-island company revenues. The purpose of the paper is to help predict and plan future maritime transportation requirements of Croatian islands.

We report on the results of the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) free-fall mode experiment, in which the control force needed to compensate the quasistatic differential force acting on two test masses is applied intermittently as a series of “impulse” forces lasting a few seconds and separated by roughly 350 s periods of true free fall. This represents an alternative to the normal LPF mode of operation in which this balancing force is applied continuously, with the advantage that the acceleration noise during free fall is measured in the absence of the actuation force, thus eliminating associated noise and force calibration errors. The differential acceleration noise measurement presented here with the free-fall mode agrees with noise measured with the continuous actuation scheme, representing an important and independent confirmation of the LPF result. An additional measurement with larger actuation forces also shows that the technique can be used to eliminate actuation noise when this is a dominant factor., Physical Review Letters, 123 (11), ISSN:0031-9007, ISSN:1079-7114

Labour is an essential and specific resource to a firm. The framework for any labour contract is set by the individual country’s regulation, i.e. its labour market institutional mechanism design. Our research problem is concentrated onto the objection of a growing discrepancy between firms’ needs and employment contracts as they are actually implemented under current regulation. The foremost economic question at hand is whether the labour market and firm’s regulatory institutional mechanism design is commensurate with the specific firm’s needs and the needs of the economy of that particular country. During the 20th century, employment regulation was mostly tightened under the excuse of greater worker protection consequently reducing the freedom of contract between employers and employees. Firms needed and asked for exactly the opposite: more flexible employment contracts. Employment regulation is an essential part of the legal business framework since it governs employment relationships and sets the span of contract flexibility, thereby influencing international competitiveness of a firm and the economy as well. We conjecture the less flexible working arrangements are the less beneficial is the employment environment as firms are more procrastinated by regulation. We investigate regulatory practices of selected European Union countries (Austria, Croatia, Finland, and Ireland) regarding labour market issues and its consequences. Labour market flexibility is a composite indicator of selected factors conjectured to ultimately influence the economic performance of nations. Our aim is to identify factors influencing labour market flexibility and the selected output variables such as employment, productivity, and others.

STEM is an acronym for academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and is used to describe scientific education. A comprehensive list of STEM disciplines does not exist but the list among others includes: physics, chemistry, biology, biochemistry, genetic research, neurobiology, neuropsychology, psychology, biomechanics, bioinformatics, nanotechnology, robotics, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, chemical engineering, pharmacology, mathematics, mathematical biology, operations research, statistics, electronics, information technology, acoustical engineering, radiology, and environmental sciences, just to mention the ones of interest to personalized medicine. Economics considers a Pareto improvement if at least one of the two, or preferably both of the following results are achieved: firstly, one may achieve the same effects at lower costs, and secondly, one may achieve better results at same costs. Finally, one tends to achieve both: better results at lower costs. The three combinations are all Pareto improvements and are part of the economic evolutionary development process called innovation. Innovation is a process of ideas hybridisation. Just as biological sexual evolution, the human technological evolution is also based on recombination of information, and that is not a metaphor. Innovation with recombination of ideas for humane purposes requires virtue, and virtue equals cooperative behaviour that requires institutions. Institutions are rules shaping human behaviour, strengthening mutual trust for the purposes of cooperative behaviour. Without cooperation there is no recombination of ideas, no multidisciplinary research, and no progress. One scientific discipline is not enough. Cooperation among and between sciences in a multidisciplinary environment is a necessary precondition for innovation and improvements in medicine in general and in the subfield of personalized medicine in particular. Personalized medicine is an attempt to make medicine more efficient and less costly, by making it more patient centered and thus less redundant. We shall give some examples of how interdisciplinary work may create some innovation in personalized medicine. Medical problems are getting more complex, more specific, and more personal indeed. Personalized medicine gives us thus the ability to analyse problems more quickly, and more specifically. Only the availability of sophisticated and specialised technologies in an open, networked, dynamic and collaborative social environment enables us to combine and recombine the available scientific resources so that they better address the requirements at hand.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate and explain changes of drug prices for hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments on the Croatian market. METHODS: The study is a retrospective analysis, conducted using publicly available pricing lists from the Croatian National Health Insurance Fund. The encompassed period is from November 2012 to July 2016. RESULTS: Pegylated interferon alpha- 2a (pegIFN) maintained a constant price for a longer period of time due to the lack of direct competition. Boceprevir (BOC) and telaprevir (TPV) were able to maintain a constant price since their entry on the market up until simeprevir (SIM) entered the EU5 (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain) market. Consequently, prices of TPV and BOC dropped (6% and 11%, respectively) remaining at that level even after SIM entered the Croatian market. The market entry of sofosbuvir (SOF) and ombitasvir, paritaprevir, ritonavir, and dasabuvir (OBV/PTV/ r/DSV) combination therapy was followed by a significant SIM’s price reduction (19%) and the ultimate withdrawal of TPV. In July 2016 BOC experienced a significant drop of its price (16%) probably due to the fact that BOC is not the standard of care anymore. On the other hand, the SIM, SOF and OBV/PAR/r/DAS price drop in July 2016 was negligible (o1%). A price reductions, similar to price reductions on USA market, could not be observed on the Croatian market. CONCLUSIONS: HCV drug price reductions have not been under direct impact of competition on the Croatian market but they are rather a consequence of competition on the EU5 and USA markets. The Croatian market is a typical market of a small and open economy without independent price setting. The principal reason for that is the Croatian EU membership with the prohibition of price discrimination, as well as a delayed drug introduction to the Croatian market in comparison to USA and EU5 markets.

On board LISA Pathfinder spacecraft the test mass displacement along the main measurement axis is sensed in two different ways: optically and electrostatically. We have monitored the relative calibration between the two measurements during the mission science phase. The trend sensitivity of the relative calibration has been computed for different physical parameters, such as temperature, magnetic field, test mass bias voltage and current., Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 840, ISSN:1742-6588, ISSN:1742-6596