Credit Institutions in the Republic of Croatia in the Period From 1991 to 2020

It can be said that there is a day in the entire world when a company is not established or ceases its activity. Among these companies, credit institutions also have their place. The requirements that must be met when establishing banks and other credit institutions are as a rule, more rigorous than when establishing other business entities. Therefore, credit institutions are established less frequently. It can also be noted that they disappear from economic life less frequently. The emergence, and especially the disappearance of a credit institution does not go unnoticed. The same is true for other companies, unless they belong to a group of large and globally known companies. The aim of this paper is to analyse the trends in the establishment and failure of credit institutions in the Republic of Croatia in the period from 1991 to 2020. The research was conducted by studying domestic and foreign scientific and other relevant literature

Role of Management, Supervisory Board and General Assembly of Credit Institution in Corporate Governance

Managing a company that acts as a member of the management board and supervisory board is an extremely demanding and responsible task. Precisely for this reason, the legislation of each country has prescribed the conditions that must be met by persons who aspire to these tasks. The most important legal framework in the Republic of Croatia is the provisions of the Companies Act. The conditions that must be fulfilled by the members of the management, supervisory board, and board of directors of credit institutions are more demanding than the conditions prescribed for the members of the management structures of non-financial companies. These conditions are specified in the Credit Institutions Act. The aim of the paper is to analyse the management, supervisory board and general assembly of credit institutions in accordance with the Croatian legislation. The research was conducted on the basis of available scientific and other relevant literature

Building vibration induced by sonic boom - field test in Russia

Infrasound and audible sound at very low frequency from sources such as military aircrafts, explosions and wind mills can induce building vibration involving both rattling and whole-body vibration strong enough to cause annoyance. Sonic boom is of special interest in this context due to its very low frequency content that coincides with the most important frequency range for both building vibration and human perception. This paper presents results from field tests with measurements of noise and building vibrations from sonic booms performed at the Tretyakovo airport in Russia. Transmission loss from outdoor to indoor noise, noise induced floor vibration and whole building vibration are determined. Furthermore, the measured acoustic vibration admittance is used to estimate vibration values in the same building from low boom flight passages using synthesized sound pressure time series. Boom induced floor vibration both from the measured flight passages in Russia and from synthesized low boom time series are estimated also for a lightweight wooden building, using previously measured acoustic vibration admittances. The results clearly show perceptible levels of vibrations from sonic boom along with a great influence of the building type which indicates that there can be a big difference between the European countries depending on the building tradition. Finally, it is shown that outdoor sound levels weighted with the C-curve correlates best with frequency weighted floor vibration values.Building vibration induced by sonic boom - field test in RussiapublishedVersio

Pt nanoparticles under oxidizing conditions – implications of particle size, adsorption sites and oxygen coverage on stability

Platinum nanoparticles are efficient catalysts for different reactions, such as oxidation of carbon and nitrogen monoxides. Adsorption and interaction of oxygen with the nanoparticle surface, taking place under reaction conditions, determine not only the catalytic efficiency but also the stability of the nanoparticles against oxidation. In this study, platinum nanoparticles in oxygen environment are investigated by systematic screening of initial nanoparticle–oxygen configurations and employing density functional theory and a thermodynamics-based approach. The structures formed at low oxygen coverages are described by adsorption of atomic oxygen on the nanoparticles whereas at high coverages oxide-like species are formed. The relative stability of adsorption configurations at different oxygen coverages, including the phase of fully oxidized nanoparticles, is investigated by constructing p–T phase diagrams for the studied systems

Endogenous Testosterone Modulates Prefrontal–Amygdala Connectivity during Social Emotional Behavior

It is clear that the steroid hormone testosterone plays an important role in the regulation of social emotional behavior, but it remains unknown which neural circuits mediate these hormonal influences in humans. We investigated the modulatory effects of endogenous testosterone on the control of social emotional behavior by applying functional magnetic resonance imaging while healthy male participants performed a social approach–avoidance task. This task operationalized social emotional behavior by having participants approach and avoid emotional faces by pulling and pushing a joystick, respectively. Affect-congruent trials mapped the automatic tendency to approach happy faces and avoid angry faces. Affect-incongruent trials required participants to override those automatic action tendencies and select the opposite response (approach-angry, avoid-happy). The social emotional control required by affect-incongruent responses resulted in longer reaction times (RTs) and increased activity at the border of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and frontal pole (VLPFC/FP). We show that endogenous testosterone modulates these cerebral congruency effects through 2 mechanisms. First, participants with lower testosterone levels generate larger VLPFC/FP responses during affect-incongruent trials. Second, during the same trials, endogenous testosterone modulates the effective connectivity between the VLPFC/FP and the amygdala. These results indicate that endogenous testosterone influences local prefrontal activity and interregional connectivity supporting the control of social emotional behavior

Analysis of Female Interest in Maritime Education at Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy Varna and at the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Split

The promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment is one of the main goals of the United Nations. The aim of this study is to analyze the gradual change of conservative perceptions about the role of women in shipping. Maritime education and training institutions are fully involved in the process. The Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy and the Split University’s Faculty of Maritime Studies are a part of this process of general change in human attitude towards the acceptance of women on merchant ships. Data on female admittance and graduation are collected by both academies. In the period examined, i.e.  2012 – 2018, 129 women were enrolled at and 60 graduated from the NVNA. 281 women were enrolled at and 68 graduated from the Faculty of Maritime Studies. The attitudes of female candidates at the academy Nikola Vaptsarov were studied by means of a questionnaire. The growing number of female candidates at Nikola Vaptsarov’s Navigation, Ship Engineering and Electrician studies proves that a competitive environment was created on a completely new basis, namely the ability of women to work at an equal footing with men in a purely male-dominated profession. This paper opens the door to future research of the recruitment market required to establish the reasons behind skepticism about women on board and the ways to overcome this conservative line of thinking

Emerging Disease-Modifying Therapies in Neurodegeneration With Brain Iron Accumulation (NBIA) Disorders

Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation (NBIA) is a heterogeneous group of progressive neurodegenerative diseases characterized by iron deposition in the globus pallidus and the substantia nigra. As of today, 15 distinct monogenetic disease entities have been identified. The four most common forms are pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN), phospholipase A2 group VI (PLA2G6)-associated neurodegeneration (PLAN), beta-propeller protein-associated neurodegeneration (BPAN) and mitochondrial membrane protein-associated neurodegeneration (MPAN). Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation disorders present with a wide spectrum of clinical symptoms such as movement disorder signs (dystonia, parkinsonism, chorea), pyramidal involvement (e.g., spasticity), speech disorders, cognitive decline, psychomotor retardation, and ocular abnormalities. Treatment remains largely symptomatic but new drugs are in the pipeline. In this review, we discuss the rationale of new compounds, summarize results from clinical trials, provide an overview of important results in cell lines and animal models and discuss the future development of disease-modifying therapies for NBIA disorders. A general mechanistic approach for treatment of NBIA disorders is with iron chelators which bind and remove iron. Few studies investigated the effect of deferiprone in PKAN, including a recent placebo-controlled double-blind multicenter trial, demonstrating radiological improvement with reduction of iron load in the basal ganglia and a trend to slowing of disease progression. Disease-modifying strategies address the specific metabolic pathways of the affected enzyme. Such tailor-made approaches include provision of an alternative substrate (e.g., fosmetpantotenate or 4 '-phosphopantetheine for PKAN) in order to bypass the defective enzyme. A recent randomized controlled trial of fosmetpantotenate, however, did not show any significant benefit of the drug as compared to placebo, leading to early termination of the trials' extension phase. 4 '-phosphopantetheine showed promising results in animal models and a clinical study in patients is currently underway. Another approach is the activation of other enzyme isoforms using small molecules (e.g., PZ-2891 in PKAN). There are also compounds which counteract downstream cellular effects. For example, deuterated polyunsaturated fatty acids (D-PUFA) may reduce mitochondrial lipid peroxidation in PLAN. In infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy (a subtype of PLAN), desipramine may be repurposed as it blocks ceramide accumulation. Gene replacement therapy is still in a preclinical stage