Perceived Effects of Croatian Customs Services Reform: the Opinion of Forwarders from Istarska County

The reforms of the public sector rank among the most complex problems Croatia has to face in the process of transition and accession to the EU. One of the recent reforms, the Customs Service Reform, offers insights into some of the achieved improvements and may serve as a guideline for reformers in other areas of public management. This research provides evidence of “customer satisfaction” with the functioning of the Croatian Customs System. Conclusions have been drawn based on the responses of 31 forwarders from Istarska County using a 19-item Likert scale. According to their opinion, services have improved in several aspects during the past few years, and accordingly the results can be interpreted as an indication of success of reform efforts.public services; quality perception; reform results; customs services

Kakovostno delovanje nepridobitnih - nevladnih organizacij kot osnovni pogoj za obstanek in njihov nadaljnji razvoj

Kakovostno delovanje nepridobitne - nevladne organizacije je osnovni pogoj za njeno delovanje in nadaljnji razvoj. Poznavanje pojma kakovosti, opredeljevanja kakovosti storitev in načinov presojanja kakovosti delovanja organizacij je izredno pomembno, vendar so za delo organizacije nujno potrebne tudi konkretne raziskave in uporaba teoretičnih znanj. Prispevek predstavlja raziskavo o Poznavanju taborniške organizacije v Sloveniji. Raziskava je bila izvedena na reprezentativnem vzorcu 1160 gospodinjstev, proporcionalno so bila zajeta gospodinjstva iz vseh regij Slovenije. Podatki, pridobljeni na osnovi te raziskave, so koristni za prihodnje načrtovanje in usmerjanje delovanja taborniške organizacije

Sulfur-house operation /

C38

Literature Circles and the Use of Comprehension Strategies within a Fifth Grade Classroom

The purpose of this study was to research the effect of literature circles on the use of comprehension strategies during reading discussions. Example comprehension strategies that students used are based on visualizing, questioning, connections, and summarizing. The participants were 25 fifth graders within a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Three types of data sets were used which consisted of observations, student work, and a final survey. Students formed literature circles using a book of their choice from a given list provided by the researcher. Students had four weeks to read their novel and hold weekly discussions. During the literature circle discussions, the researcher recorded observations based on comprehension strategies. Students filled out guided role sheets as needed. Once the literature circles concluded, the researcher administered a final survey to students. The researcher analyzed the results and found that literature circles have a positive effect on the use and practice of comprehension strategies

Motion Scalability for Video Coding with Flexible Spatio-Temporal Decompositions

PhDThe research presented in this thesis aims to extend the scalability range of the wavelet-based video coding systems in order to achieve fully scalable coding with a wide range of available decoding points. Since the temporal redundancy regularly comprises the main portion of the global video sequence redundancy, the techniques that can be generally termed motion decorrelation techniques have a central role in the overall compression performance. For this reason the scalable motion modelling and coding are of utmost importance, and specifically, in this thesis possible solutions are identified and analysed. The main contributions of the presented research are grouped into two interrelated and complementary topics. Firstly a flexible motion model with rateoptimised estimation technique is introduced. The proposed motion model is based on tree structures and allows high adaptability needed for layered motion coding. The flexible structure for motion compensation allows for optimisation at different stages of the adaptive spatio-temporal decomposition, which is crucial for scalable coding that targets decoding on different resolutions. By utilising an adaptive choice of wavelet filterbank, the model enables high compression based on efficient mode selection. Secondly, solutions for scalable motion modelling and coding are developed. These solutions are based on precision limiting of motion vectors and creation of a layered motion structure that describes hierarchically coded motion. The solution based on precision limiting relies on layered bit-plane coding of motion vector values. The second solution builds on recently established techniques that impose scalability on a motion structure. The new approach is based on two major improvements: the evaluation of distortion in temporal Subbands and motion search in temporal subbands that finds the optimal motion vectors for layered motion structure. Exhaustive tests on the rate-distortion performance in demanding scalable video coding scenarios show benefits of application of both developed flexible motion model and various solutions for scalable motion coding

Institutionalization of Public-Private Partnership: Global Experiences and the Basic Outlines of a Proposal for Slovenia

Experiences show that countries use one of the following three forms for “institutionalisation” of their private-public partnership (PPP) activities: (i) centralised, (ii) decentralised, and (iii) mixed. The article argues that the form of mixed PPP “institutionalisation” would be the most appropriate for Slovenia. The institutional structure would be composed of three institutions: (i) central PPP unit responsible, first, for horizontal coordination of all PPP policies in the country, and second, for implementation of PPP projects in all those areas where sectoral PPP units would not be created, (ii) very limited number of sectoral PPP units (probably 1 to 2) that would be responsible for implementation of PPP projects in their respective sectors, and (iii) advisory board that would advise the central PPP unit in designing the most complex segments of the PPP policies in the country and would provide a platform for professional discussion and for communication with the public at large on a wide variety of PPP issues. In substance terms, the central PPP unit would be responsible directly to the government while in organisational terms, it would be incorporated into the institutional structure of the ministry of finance with the head of the unit being directly responsible to the minister of finance

Croatian demographic losses in 20th century

Rad se bavi hrvatskim demografskim gubicima u 20. stoljeću. Analizirani su svi ratovi u kojima je Hrvatska sudjelovala te današnje stanje. Navedene su i moguće revitalizacijske mjere kojima bi se Hrvatska mogla izvući iz demografske krize u kojoj se danas nalazi.This paper deals with Croatian demographic losses in 20th century. All the wars in which Croatia participed have beed analyzed and also today's state. There are also possible revitalization measures that could bring Croatia out of the demographic crisis in which it is today

Planning Conditions and Spatial Indicators of Physical Planning in Tourist Zones of Babin Kuk and Solaris

Obalno područje Jadrana je prostor na kojem se odvija vrlo zahtjevan proces između očuvanja prirodnih obilježja i vrijednosti toga područja i korištenja istoga u gospodarske svrhe, ponajprije za turizam. Analizirana je i vrednovana prostorno-planska dokumentacija turističkih područja Babin Kuk i Solaris, i to od prvih prostornih planova koji su izrađeni i doneseni, preko realiziranog stanja, pa do prikaza novih prostorno-planskih rješenja na kojima će se temeljiti daljnji razvoj. Provedenim izračunom odabranih prostornih pokazatelja ukazuje se na važnost prostornog planiranja turističkih područja, u procesu kojega se na najprihvatljiviji mogući način treba uspostaviti ravnoteža svih elemenata značajnih za razvoj turizma, a da se pritom zaštite obilježja prostora na kojima se ovaj temelji.The Adriatic coast is undergoing challenging processes which entail the preservation of natural characteristics and values of the area and its uses for economic purposes, primarily tourism. The paper brings the analysed and assessed spatial plans of the tourist zones of Babin Kuk and Solaris which comprise the original, proposed and accepted plans, the present state and new spatial plans which would be the basis for further development of the zones. An analysis of determined spatial indicators points to the importance of spatial planning of tourist zones in the process which should in the most suitable manner bring into balance all the elements important for tourism development without endangering the area’s characteristics on which the development is based