Rainfall Influence on the Abundance of Bacteria in Dubrovnik Marine Waters

Microbiological testing of the sea gives us great knowledge about its quality for swimming. Here we are following the fluctuations in the abundance of E. coli colonies, intestinal enterococci and total coliforms on three beaches in Dubrovnik during the rainfall in winter and spring. Three beaches Porporela, Banje and Excelsior are the most visited beaches during the summer season. Samples were taken before, during and after the rainfall on the surface, in the depth of 0.5 m and 1 m. Membrane filtration was used for sample treatment. Expected increase in the abundance of colonies is shown most on the Banje beach where the total coliforms increased 15.80 times while on the Excelsior beach E. coli colonies increased 12 times during the rainfall. On the Porporela beach there was a mild increase of intestinal enterococci colonies for 6.66 times. Regarding the data of the Institute of Public Health Dubrovnik-Neretva County the beaches were mostly marked as “excellent” especially since 2003 when the sewers were regulated in the Dubrovnik Old Town. The number of all colonies after the rainfall reduced for 99.80% in all three locations.

Competitiveness of Travel Agencies in the European Tourism Market

The concept of competitiveness influenced by many factors is analyzed in terms of terminology distinctions. This is the reason of numerous definitions of this term included in the first part of the paper, which varies according to the aspect of the analysis, analyzed marketing unit, tourism product, geographical unit, region, destination, or entities that offer an acceptable integrated product a package by specific indicators for comparison of elements of competitiveness. The first part of the article theoretically emphasizes the distinction in defining the concept of competitiveness from various aspects of the analyzed market subjects （different features and facilities provided）, and from those aspects of their specific business relationship in the market. Special contribution to the study of competitiveness is contained in the second part of the paper that analyzes the existing situation of intermediation in the European tourism market. This research is based on using the data of descriptive statistics and the secondary research which gives insights into the business of travel agencies, using the data such as number of employees, annual personnel costs, and the average annual cost per person employed in travel agencies in some European countries. The changes in the environment, and the competition initiate a need for an analysis of the internal environment, travel agencies＇ tasks, and their organizational structure. Also, the results conducted research on a sample of 500 travel agencies in 20 European countries indicate the dominance of quality service, price, and value for money as key factors of demand for achieving the competitiveness. It indicates new trends focused on needs for more specific--integrated tourist products that ensure the quality of service, value for money, and for the time that tourists invest in their obtaining.

Metamorphopsia as the first clinical sign of renal cell carcinoma

Dear Editor,We would like to report visual disturbance due to choroidal metastasis as the first clinical sign of renal carcinoma.Metastatic tumours are one of the most common type of intraocular malignancy in adults with the most common origins of metastasis being the lungs in men and breasts in women[1-2].Ocular choroidal metastases from renal cell carcinoma(RCC)are rare with 3.5%of ocular metastases originating from the kidneys[3].RCC predominantly occurs in individuals in their seventh and eighth decades of life and has been reported nearly twice as often in men as in women[1,3].

Global warming scenarios for the Eastern Adriatic Sea indicate a higher risk of invasiveness of non-native marine organisms relative to current climate conditions

Globally,marine bioinvasions threaten marine ecosystem structure and function,with the Mediterranean Sea being one of the most affected regions.Such invasions are expected to increase due to climate change.We conducted a risk screening of marine organisms(37 fishes,38 invertebrates,and 9 plants),both extant and‘horizon’(i.e.,not present in the area but likely to enter it).Based on expert knowledge for the Eastern Adriatic Sea coasts of Slovenia,Croatia,and Montenegro,screenings were conducted under both current and predicted climate conditions indicating with an increase in sea surface temperature and salinity of the Adriatic Sea together with changes in precipitation regime.Our aims were to:(1)identify non-native extant and horizon marine species that may pose threats to native biodiversity and(2)evaluate the risk of invasiveness of the selected species under current and predicted climate conditions.Of the 84 species screened,there was an increase in those ranked as‘high risk’from 33(39.3%)under current climate conditions and to 47(56.0%)under global warming scenarios.For those ranked as‘very high’risk,the increase was from 6(7.1%)to 21(25.0%).Amongst the screened species,the already established high-risk species Pacific oyster Magallana gigas and Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus represent a threat to ecosystem services.Given the under-representation of marine species in the current European Union List,the species we have ranked as high to very high risk should be included.

Load Control for Overloaded MPLS/DiffServ Networks during SLA Negotiation

In end-to-end QoS provisioning some bandwidth portions on the link may be reserved for certain traffic classes (and for particular set of users) so the congestion problem of concurrent flows (traversing the network simultaneously) can appear. It means that in overloaded and poorly connected MPLS/DS networks the CR (Constraint-based Routing) becomes insufficient technique. If traffic engineering is supported with ap-propriate traffic load control the congestion possibility can be predicted before the utilization of guaranteed service. In that sense the initial (proactive) routing can be pre-computed much earlier, possible during SLA (Service Level Agreement) negotiation. In the paper a load simulation technique for load balancing control purpose is proposed. It could be a very good solution for congestion avoidance and for better load-balancing purpose where links are running close to capacity. To be acceptable for real application such complicated load control technique needs very effective algorithm. Proposed algorithm was tested on the network with maximum M core routers on the path and detail results are given for N=3 service classes. Further improve-ment through heuristic approach is made and results are discussed. Some heuristic options show significant complexity savings that is appropriate for load control in huge networks.

Rogoznica Lake(Croatia),a Unique Euxinic Seawater System on the Adriatic Coast

1 Introduction Rogoznica Lake is a typical example of euxinic saline lake,situated on the eastern Adriatic coast(43o32’N15o58’E).It is a karstic depression filled with seawater,

Long Term Fuel Sustainable Fission Energy Perspective Relevant for Combating Climate Change

A climate relevant and immediately available proven light water nuclear strategy with a potential to contribute essentially and timely to reduction of carbon dioxide emission to the year 2065 was assumed. The perspective of fission energy after that year is considered. Two technologies with long term perspective which need no or small amounts of uranium, i.e. fast breeders and molten salt thorium reactors were singled out. The main technical and safety characteristics were considered. In both of these technologies it is essential to have starter nuclides as neither U238 nor Th232 are fissile. It was investigated whether plutonium from spent fuel of light water reactors generated to the year 2065 would be present in quantities sufficient to continue operation on the same or similar level in both technologies. However, taking into account operational safety, proliferation risks, and waste production preference must be given to thorium technology.

Carbon Emission Impact for Energy Strategy in Which All Non-CCS Coal Power Plants Are Replaced by NPPs

A threat of global warming should convince the public to accept a nuclear fission energy contribution to climate change mitigation, at least for the climate critical years up to 2065. The nuclear fission energy is available now, with proven reactors, such as advanced LWR （light water reactors）. Nuclear strategy in this paper outlines a proposal to replace all coal power plants （without carbon and capture storage system） with nuclear power plants in the period 2025-2065. Assuming once through advanced LWR technology, one would need nuclear capacity of 1,600 GW to replace coal power plants in that period. Corresponding reduction of emission would amount to 11.8 Gt of CO2. This energy strategy would reduce carbon emission by approximately 22% in the year 2065 and would be covered by projected uranium resources. An estimation of replacement costs showed that future carbon tax has a considerable potential to offset higher costs of nuclear replacement power.