Abstract The economic openness and reindustrialization. Can these two occurrences exist at the same time? The empirical experience of the East European countries tells us that they cannot. Trade liberalization in the transition countries implemented during the 1990s led to the process of deindustrialization which continued also during the 2000s. The goal of this paper is to present the possible directions for reform of the international trade system which would enable reindustrialization of the small countries in East Europe with simultaneous preservation of the achieved level of trade liberalization. Admittedly, we are separated from the win-win situation by the conviction that this is only possible if the compensation principle is applied on the global trade, according to which the winners in the global trade (developed countries with trade surplus), should compensate to the losers (small insufficiently developed countries) a part of their losses with mandatory support to programs of reindustrialization based on exports, for which the funds are chronically lacking. An alternative is reindustrialization based on import substitution i.e. strengthening of the protectionism, where all benefits of the free trade could vanish so in the end everybody would be in loss.

Abstract This paper provides an empirical analysis of factors affecting Bank Interest Margins in eight countries of the South-East European (SEE) region between 2000 and 2014. The purpose of this paper is to examine and investigate the main drivers of Bank Interest Rate Margins across selected countries throughout the SEE region. Also, the study explored the relationship between the dependent variable Interest Rate Spread (IRS - as a proxy variable for measuring variation in Bank Interest Rate Margins) and a set of selected banks’ specific variables in SEE by employing panel data estimation methodology. This research is based on aggregate data for the whole banking sector of each country. In line with some expectations, our findings confirm the importance of credit risk, bank concentration operative efficiency, and inflation expectations in determining Bank Interest Rate Margins. Interestingly, in contrast to the majority of recent empirical research, the study found an inverse relationship between the bank concentration variable and Bank Interest Rate Margins as well as between the operational efficiency variable and Bank Interest Rate Margins. Also, the study could not find statistically significant evidence that Bank Interest Rate Margins are determined by output growth, bank profitability (measured by ROA) or liquidity risk.

Karst is a terrain with special hydrogeology and relief forms, and it develops in rocks that are relatively soluble in water. Quaternary deposits in karst areas of the Dinarides occupy relatively smaller areas, in poljes and beds of a small number of karst rivers. The subject of the study is the Quaternary formations in the Trebižat riverbed. Although the river has carved its bed through Quaternary limestones, occurrences of major water losses or sinking are not registered due to relatively thick, fine‐grained and clayey alluvium that has been deposited in the canyon. Their depth is relatively large and in places it is over 20 m. Tufa in the form fragments of different sizes is very often present. It has a high holey porosity that is partly due to the decomposition of water plant tissues, and partly due to the dissolution or releasing of organic tissue. Despite the high porosity, tufa does not have a high permeability because the pores are not well interconnected and are often filled with fine‐grained particles. The subject of the paper is geomechanical and hydrogeological properties of these sediments.

An increasing trend of sludge generation at wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) has been observed in developing countries like Croatia. Thermal processing of sewage sludge facilitates its further management, although ash is generated as new waste in the process. The proposed approach, while eliminating the need to dispose ash at non-hazardous waste disposal sites, directly reduces not only the sludge and ash disposal costs, but also the raw cement production costs. All analysed technical and environmental requirements are met when 20 % of cement is replaced with ash.

Abstract The main objective of endodontic treatment is to remove vital and necrotic remnants of pulp tissue and microorganisms and their toxic products from the root canal. During chemo-mechanical endodontic preparation, a smear layer is formed on the wall of the canals. Due to an inability to remove all tissue remnants and the smear layer from the root canal by mechanical instrumentation, it is necessary to use irrigation to ensure sufficient cleaning and disinfection of the largest part of the root canalicular system. The most commonly used irrigants are sodium hypochlorite (Na-OCl), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), citric acid and chlorhexidine (CHX). Recently, the irrigants QMix and MTAD have been introduced to the market. They are a mixture of different components having antimicrobial, organolytic and mineralytic effects on canal detritus and the smear layer. This review article investigates irrigants in terms of the nature of their effect, their efficiency, optimal concentration, and method of use, and the interactions between the irrigants most commonly used in endodontic therapy are discussed, with special emphasis on QMix and MTAD.

Abstract The paper provides an overview of the trend in the concentration of the total assets of banks in Croatia for the period from 2007 to 2016 with the aim of analysing and presenting the changes that occurred in the system. Also, the paper shows the theoretical framework of the indicators used in the research as well as the comparison of their obtained values. The data used to calculate the total assets concentration are taken from the Croatian National Bank. The concentration indices used in the study include the entropy measure, the Theil entropy, the Gini coefficient, the Pietra index, the Atkinson index and the coefficient of variation. The results indicate a very slight decrease in concentration over the past several years, while the coefficient of variation points to the heterogeneity of the system, as well as to inequalities among the banks, which are most evident in the size of banks assets.

Even though coordinate measuring machines (CMM) still achieve the most accurate measurement results, non-contact (optical) measuring systems are applied more and more in industry. The reasons of using optical scanners are in the higher speed of acquisition, higher density of data-points and better surface description, the ability to scan complex and non-rigid surfaces etc in comparison to contcact devices. This paper gives a review of state-of-the-art measuring contact and non-contact inspection technologies in industrial applications. Listed are the devices, principles and systems that are used at the data-acquisition (triangulation, time-of-flight and interferometry). The description of contact measuring machines (portable CMM and stationary CMM) and devices for non-contact scanning (laser scanner, structured light scanner and CT scanner) is given, and their advatages and disadvantages are mentioned with corresponding literature review.