Role of small and medium sized enterprises in the regional development of Croatia

The paper will reflect upon the crucial role of small and medium sized enterprises (SME's) in Croatia's local and regional development, particulary in circumstances when the Croatian counties (regions) are simultaneously faced with problems related to post-war reconstruction, economic transition, industrial restructuring and future development. The paper will point out the main goals related to the development of the SME sector in Croatia as well as the importance of their development for particular categories of regions (counties affected by the war, border regions, industrial decline regions, etc.). The basic problems and needs of the entrepreneurs in these regions will be considered (on the basis of in depth surveys and interviews which are carried out in pilot regions). Furtherrmore, the paper will provide a survey of proposed policy measures aiming to encurage the start-up of new small firms, as well as further development of the already existing innovative industrial small firms - thus contributing to regional restructuring and development of Croatia's "problem regions".

Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change

This dissertation advocates inclusive and integrated more-than-human relations as humans, technoscience, and nature become increasingly entangled in contexts of climate change and socio-ecological crisis. Researching in the environmental humanities between 2017 and 2020, I situate my study in Cape Town, South Africa, where the fluctuations between water's abundance and absence—as evidenced by the 2018 drought—have necessitated new approaches to ontology and epistemology that critically disrupt dominant systems of thought. Using the Cape Flats Aquifer and its aboveground area, the Philippi Horticultural Area, as my primary field sites, I focused on the legal battle that has surfaced between various human actors over land and water use, to explore how different human-nature relationships emerge, and to evaluate the social and environmental implications thereof. The overall inquiry guiding my research is how the Cape Flats Aquifer can make the case for multispecies relations by examining how it flows, or is brought into, existence. First, I present the different kinds of evidence that make the aquifer and its aboveground area un/seen; second, I assess whether alternative ways of evidencing the aquifer exist with a focus on farming practices in the Philippi Horticultural Area; third, I question what ought to be part of the aquifer evidentiary if sustainable, adaptive, and resilient human-nature relations are to be achieved? I argue that humans, multispecies, and earthly bodies such as the aquifer ought to be understood as relational, multiple, and intimately implicated in each other in the face of unpredictable climatic conditions

Gamma interferon-dependent clearance of cytomegalovirus infection in salivary glands

Cytomegalovirus (CMV), similar to other members of the Herpesviridae family, can establish both persistent and latent infections. Each of the CMVs that are found in many animal species replicates in the salivary gland, and oral secretion represents a source of horizontal transmission. Locally restricted replication characterizes the immunocompetent individual, whereas in the immunocompromised host, protean disease manifestations occur due to virus dissemination. The virus is cleared by immune surveillance, and CD8+ T lymphocytes play a major role. Remarkably, certain cell types of salivary gland tissues are exempt from CD8+ T-lymphocyte control of murine CMV infection and require the activity of CD4+ T lymphocytes. The results presented here suggest that this activity is a function of Th1 cells. Neutralization of endogenous gamma interferon abrogated the antiviral activity of Th1 cells but not that of CD8+ T lymphocytes in other tissues. Neutralization of endogenous gamma interferon did not interfere with the induction of the cellular and humoral immune response but acted during the effector phase. Recombinant gamma interferon could not replace the function of Th1 cells in vivo and had limited direct antiviral activity in vitro. The results therefore suggest that gamma interferon represents one, but not the only, essential factor involved in salivary gland clearance, establishment of CMV latency, and, eventually, the control of horizontal transmission

Antibodies Are Not Essential for the Resolution of Primary Cytomegalovirus Infection but Limit Dissemination of Recurrent Virus

Virus shedding from the epithelial cells of the serous acini of salivary glands is a major source for the horizontal transmission of cytomegalovirus. These cells are, different to other tissues, exempt from CD8 T lymphocyte control. CD4 T lymphocytes are essential to terminate the productive infection. Here, we prove that T-B cooperation and the production of antibodies are not required for this process. For the infection with murine cytomegalovirus, mutant mice were used which do not produce antibodies because of a disrupted membrane exon of the immunoglobulin # chain gene. Also, in these mice the virus clearance from salivary glands is a function of CD4 T lymphocytes. However, these mice clear the virus and establish viral latency with a kinetics that is distinguishable from normal mice. Reactivation from virus latency is the only stage at which the absence of antibodies alters the phenotype of infection. In immunoglobulindeficient mice, virus recurrence results in higher virus titers. The adoptive serum transfer proved that antibody is the limited factor that prevents virus dissemination in the immunodeficient hos

Public perception of flood risks, flood forecasting and mitigation

A multidisciplinary and integrated approach to the flood mitigation decision making process should provide the best response of society in a flood hazard situation including preparation works and post hazard mitigation. In Slovenia, there is a great lack of data on social aspects and public response to flood mitigation measures and information management. In this paper, two studies of flood perception in the Slovenian town Celje are represented. During its history, Celje was often exposed to floods, the most recent serious floods being in 1990 and in 1998, with a hundred and fifty return period and more than ten year return period, respectively. Two surveys were conducted in 1997 and 2003, with 157 participants from different areas of the town in the first, and 208 in the second study, aiming at finding the general attitude toward the floods. The surveys revealed that floods present a serious threat in the eyes of the inhabitants, and that the perception of threat depends, to a certain degree, on the place of residence. The surveys also highlighted, among the other measures, solidarity and the importance of insurance against floods

Late phase inhibition of murine cytomegalovirus replication by synergistic action of interferon-gamma and tumour necrosis factor

We have shown previously that the antiviral function of CD4+ T lymphocytes against murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) is associated with the release of interferon- (IFN-). We now demonstrate that IFN- and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-) display synergism in their antiviral activity. As little as 2 ng/ml of IFN- and TNF- reduced the virus yield by about three orders of magnitude. There was no effect on immediate early (IE) and early (E) gene expression as far as the candidate genes IE1, E1 and those encoding the major DNA-binding protein and the DNA polymerase were concerned. Late gene transcription, assayed by the candidate genes encoding glycoprotein B and the MCMV homologue of ICP 18.5, was blocked and MCMV DNA replication was found to be reduced but not halted. The most prominent finding of the cytokine effect, seen by electron microscopy, was an alteration of nucleocapsid formation. Altogether, the synergism is multifaceted and acts at more than one stage during viral morphogenesis. Because the cytokines clearly do not act at an early stage of infection we conclude that the mode of cytokine activity differs between alpha- and betaherpesviruses

Regional development assessment using parametric and non-parametric ranking methods: A comparative analysis of Slovenia and Croatia

In this paper we describe several regional development-assessment methods and subsequently apply them in a comparative development level analysis of the Slovenian and Croatian municipalities. The aim is to compare performance and suitability of several parametric and non-parametric ranking methods and to develop a suitable multivariate methodological framework for distinguishing development level of particular territorial units. However, the usefulness and appropriateness of various multivariate techniques for regional development assessment is generally questionable and there is no clear consensus about how to carry out such analysis. Two main methodological approaches are based on parametric and non-parametric methods, where in the former an explicit econometric model containing theory-implied causal and possibly simultaneous relationships is estimated using likelihood-based methods and formally assessed in terms of the goodness of fit and other test statistics, subsequently allowing for estimation of the development level on a metric scale, while in the later, territorial units or regions are essentially classified into clusters or groups differing in the development level, but no formal inferential methods are applied to confirm the validity of the model, or to establish the difference in the development level on a metric scale. The possible advantages of the first approach are in the existence of formal testing and evaluation procedures, as well as in producing interval ranks of the analysed units, while its disadvantages are in the lack of robustness; often unrealistic distributional assumptions; and possible invalidity of the theoretically implied causal relationships. In this paper we consider a parametric, inferential approach based on maximum likelihood estimation of the linear structural equation model with latent variables for metric-scale development ranking, and a non-parametric approach based on cluster analysis for development grouping. Our analysis is based on ten regional development variables such as income per capita, population density, age index, etc. which are similarly collected and generally compatible for both analysed countries. Within the parametric approach, a simultaneous equation econometric model is estimated and latent scores are computed for each underlying latent development variable, where three latent constructs are postulated corresponding to economic, structural and demographic development dimensions. In the non-parametric approach, a combination of Ward?s hierarchical method and K-means clustering procedure is applied to classify the territorial units. We apply both methodological frameworks to Slovenian and Croatian municipality data and assess their regional development level. We further compare the performance of both methods and show to which degree their results are compatible. Finally, we propose a unified framework based on both parametric and non-parametric methods, where clustering techniques are performed both on the original development indicators and on the computed latent scores from the structural equation model, and compare these results with the results from each of the two methods applied separately. We show that a combined parametric/non-parametric approach is superior to each approach applied individually and propose a methodological framework capable of estimating the development level of territorial units or regions on a metric scale, while in the same time preserving the robustness of the non-parametric techniques.