New records of the genus Eilicrinia Hübner, 1823 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) in Croatia

New records of the genus Eilicrinia Hübner, 1823 in Croatia are presented and the previous literature records are summarized. Eilicrinia cordiaria (Hübner, 1790) has been recorded in Croatia after an apparent absence of 36 years at six new localities. The species has a scattered distribution in the country, with historical records originating from both Mediterranean and Continental regions while recent reports are limited to northern Croatia, mostly around the rivers Drava and Mura. For Eilicrinia trinotata (Metzner, 1845) the first record from Croatia is presented, from Bansko hill in Baranja region. Both species can be considered as scarce in Croatia and further studies are needed in order to assess their status and distribution.

In the Quest of Sustainability Principle "Reuse": Awareness of Northern Croatia Adult Population

The world has found itself spinning ever faster and economies producing ever more. But this process cannot go on forever. The Earth we live on is one and only and it has limited resources in comparison with what the people are ready to use. Sustainability of the environment is bitten by recklessness of many but critical voices are being raised in recent decades. As Stahel (2016) noted, contrary to nature and its processes, people are still primarily functioning in linear way – "make, use, dispose". This is fundamentally supported by consumerism approach and the view that the economy prospers only by permanent growth driven by infinite desires of consumers (Rojek 2004). But critical voices emphasize the social role of entrepreneurship (Zahra and Wright 2016) with the conclusion that the entrepreneurship can benefit from lowering their environmental impact (wasteful resource usage) thus also resulting in personal and societal benefits, beside the economic value creation (see about the triple bottom line also in Klarin 2018). This also spurs emerging of new business opportunities (Korhonen, Honkasalo, and Seppälä 2018). As Zahra and Wright (2016) develop it further, the businesses have to "move from 'do no harm' to 'do good'". Sustainability can be promoted by the circular economy (CE). CE is a concept in which instead of linear flow, outputs from one part of the economic process are kept in this part longer (reused, repaired, refurbished) and eventually recycled as the input for the next part of the process. This reduces the waste for the landfill disposal and the needs for resources. (Geisendorf and Pietrulla 2018; Korhonen et al. 2018) Although the definitions clearly rely on the actions of the producers (e.g. companies), we cannot forget the market pull factor and the role of consumers. Raising awareness of the consumers about the consequences of their actions can be an important factor for hurrying up introduction of the CE principles, and especially increased recycling in their everyday operating practices (Abe et al. 2014). Since CE and its principles represent a complex phenomenon, in this paper the focus of research is on the "Reuse" principle and the awareness and willingness of the adult population in northern Croatia region to engage in the reusing the consumer goods. This region is economically strong with higher contribution of the manufacturing industry to the GDP compared to the rest of the country which makes it a good candidate for this preliminary study. Keywords: Sustainability, Circular Economy, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle

Fragility Curves for Slope Stability of Geogrid Reinforced River Levees

When constructing flood protection structures such as river levees, oftentimes due to various factors engineers must design composite structures, i.e., reinforced earthen structures which comply with all the stability criteria. The most common way of reinforcing such structures is the usage of geosynthetics, or mostly geogrids when talking about stability. Since geosynthetics are man-made materials produced in a controlled environment and go through quality control measures, their characteristics contain a negligible amount of uncertainty compared to natural soils. However, geosynthetic handling, their installation in the levee, and their long-term degradation can all have significant effects of variable magnitude on geosynthetic characteristics. These effects and their variability can be considered as random variables, which can then be used in probabilistic analyses together with soil properties. To investigate the effects of the geogrid’s resistance variability on slope stability compared to soil properties variability, probabilistic analyses are conducted on a river levee in northern Croatia. It is found that the geogrid’s variability generally has very little effect on the total uncertainty compared to the friction angle’s variability, but out of the three geogrid layers used the top grid has the most influence.

Carbon-Negative Scenarios in High CO2 Gas Condensate Reservoirs

A gas condensate reservoir in Northern Croatia was used as an example of a CO2 injection site during natural gas production to test whether the entire process is carbon-negative. To confirm this hypothesis, all three elements of the CO2 life cycle were included: (1) CO2 emitted by combustion of the produced gas from the start of production from the respective field, (2) CO2 that is separated at natural gas processing plant, i.e., the CO2 that was present in the original reservoir gas composition, and (3) the injected CO2 volumes. The selected reservoir is typical of gas-condensate reservoirs in Northern Croatia (and more generally in Drava Basin), as it contains about 50% CO2 (mole). Reservoir simulations of history-matched model showed base case (production without injection) and several cases of CO2 enhanced gas recovery, but with a focus on CO2 storage rather than maximizing hydrocarbon gas production achieved by converting a production well to a CO2 injection well. General findings are that even in gas reservoirs with such extreme initial CO2 content, gas production with CO2 injection can be carbon-negative. In almost all simulated CO2 injection scenarios, the process is carbon-negative from the time of CO2 injection, and in scenarios where CO2 injection begins earlier, it is carbon-negative from the start of gas production, which opens up the possibility of cost-effective storage of CO2 while producing natural gas with net negative CO2 emissions.

Small Unconventional Hydrocarbon Gas Reservoirs as Challenging Energy Sources, Case Study from Northern Croatia

Small possible hydrocarbon gas reservoirs were analysed in the Bjelovar Subdepression in Northern Croatia. This area includes the Neogene–Quaternary, mostly clastics, sequences, reaching 3000+ metres in the deepest part. The shallow south-eastern part of the Drava Depression contains a subdepression characterised with several, mostly small, discovered hydrocarbon fields, where the majority are located on the northern subdepression margin. The reason is the large distance from the main depressional migration pathways and main, deep, mature source rock depocenters. However, two promising unconventional targets were discovered inside the subdepression and both were proven by drilling. The first are source rocks of Badenian, of kerogen type III in early catagenesis, where partially inefficient expulsion probably kept significant gas volumes trapped in the source rock during primary migration. Such structures are the Western Bjelovar (or Rovišće) and the Eastern Bjelovar (or Velika Ciglena) Synclines. The second promising unconventional reservoir consists of “tight” clastic lithofacies of mostly Lower Pontian located on the north-eastern margin of the subdepression. These are fine-grained sandstones with frequent alternations in siltites, silty and clayey sandstones. They are located on secondary migration pathways, but were never evaluated as regional reservoirs, although numerous drilling tests showed gas “pockets”.

LONGITUDINAL EVALUATION OF THE ANTI-NUCLEOCAPSID IGG AFTER THE CONFIRMED COVID-19 IN NORTHERN CROATIAN POPULATION

BACKGROUND: This study longitudinally evaluated the IgG response against the N-protein after the onset of COVID19 infection. We determined the kinetics and magnitude of the antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 in conrmed COVID-19 patients who were the rst infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Krapina-Zagorje county in northern Croatia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied 177 blood specimens from 51 patients who tested positive by PCR for COVID-19 and provided longitudinal blood samples over a duration of several months, allowing to evaluate the IgG response against the N-protein. SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay was interpreted as positive (ratio1.4 S/C) or negative (ratio<1.4 S/C). RESULTS: The majority of subjects (48/51) reported symptomatic disease. Among the 49 patients who underwent serological antibody testing at rst time point (median: 47 days), 47/49 were positive for IgG 6.02 (0.24-10.54 S/C), while at sixth time point (median: 275 days) 4/16 patients were positive for IgG, 9/16 were in grey zone, and 3/16 were negative. Using Wilcoxon statistical analysis we found statistically signicant decrease of SARS-CoV-2 N-protein IgG indices between the rst and the sixth time point (median signal to cut-off ratio, S/C, 8.18 IQR 6.91, 9.51 to 0.94 IQR 0.56, 1.18, P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We claried the kinetics and magnitude of the antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 in conrmed COVID-19 patients. Our results provide critical evidence that N-protein IgG response persists in the majority of patients for at least six to eight months after COVID19 infection.

Mitochondrial phylogeny and taxonomic revision of Italian and Slovenian fluvio-lacustrine barbels, Barbus sp. (Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae)

Background Barbels are ray finned cyprinid fishes of the Old-World with partially unresolved, intricate taxonomy. Within the Barbus sensu lato paraphyletic assemblage, Barbus sensu stricto is a monophyletic tetraploid lineage of Europe, northern Africa and Middle East, including two monophyletic sibling genera: Barbus and Luciobarbus. Italy, Slovenia and northern Croatia are natively inhabited by several entities of the genus Barbus, whose relationships and taxonomic ranks are still unclear. Aim of the present work is to focus on phylogeography of Italian and Slovenian barbels, with an appraisal of their current taxonomy. Results One hundred fifty specimens were collected in 78 sampling sites from 33 main watersheds, widely distributed along Italian and Slovenian ichthyogeographic districts. We amplified two mitochondrial markers, cytochrome b (cytb) and control region (D-loop), to infer a robust phylogeny for our sample and investigate on species delimitation. Our results strongly indicate all Italian and Adriatic Slovenian fluvio-lacustrine barbels to be comprised into at least three distinct species. We provide a proposal of taxonomic revision and a list of synonymies for two of them and a new description under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature rules for the third one. Conclusions If nuclear data will confirm our findings, at least three specific entities should be acknowledged across our sampling area. Namely, the three species are (i) Barbus plebejus, in the Padano-Venetian district; (ii) Barbus tyberinus, in the Tuscany-Latium district; (iii) Barbus oscensis Rossi & Plazzi sp. nov., in the Tyrrhenian and southernmost-Adriatic parts of Apulia-Campania district. Finally, we briefly discuss the implications of such a taxonomic scenario on conservation policies.

Middle Miocene gastropods from the southwestern margin of the Central Paratethys, Croatia: Museum collection's insight

&lt;p&gt;The most numerous and diversified Middle Miocene gastropod collection from Northern Croatia, housed at the Croatian Natural History Museum (CNHM), comes from the Zapre&amp;#353;i&amp;#263; Brijeg locality near Zagreb. The gastropod-bearing horizon of the Middle Miocene (Langhian, Badenian) age is today no longer visible on the surface, not only in this area but also in other parts of Northern Croatia. The description of the Zapre&amp;#353;i&amp;#263; Brijeg locality and fossil collecting methods can be found in the museum archives and published papers. According to these data, gastropods were collected from &quot;sandstones&quot; during the first half of the 20th century (Gorjanovi&amp;#263;-Kramberger 1894; &amp;#352;uklje 1929). Among more than 11000 stored gastropod shells from this locality 45 belong to marine, 2 to marine/brackish and 2 to brackish gastropod families. Some families comprise only one or a few representatives, while other are much more common, such as Potamididae (4459 shells), Nassariidae (2428 shells), Clavatulidae (1813 shells), Turritellidae (1253 shells), and Cerithiidae (508 shells). In previously published papers on the Zapre&amp;#353;i&amp;#263; Brijeg gastropod fauna (e.g., Gorjanovi&amp;#263;-Kramberger 1894; &amp;#352;uklje 1929; Pavlovsky 1957, 1960) the focus was mostly on the taxonomical aspect. While examining the collection, we observed numerous drilling predation marks in a shape of drill holes on marine gastropod shells and provided numerical analysis of predation marks on some common families (Bo&amp;#353;njak et al., submitted). The aim of this study is to continue the division of gastropod families by their palaeoecology (infauna, epifauna) and feeding type (carnivores, suspension feeders, detritivores and grazers), in order to better understand the palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle Miocene (Badenian, Langhian) in this area. Non-marine gastropod taxa indicate the freshwater influx and the vicinity of hinterland. Such a rich museum collection can provide further insight into the palaeoecology of the southwestern margin of the Central Paratethys, even though the original fossiliferous horizon is no more available in the field.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bo&amp;#353;njak, M., Sremac, J., Karaica, B., Ma&amp;#273;eri&amp;#263;, I. &amp; Jari&amp;#263;, A. (submitted): Mollusk mortal kombat: drilled Middle Miocene gastropods from the south-western margin of the Central Paratethys, Croatia.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gorjanovi&amp;#263;-Kramberger, D. (1894): Geology of Samoborsko gorje Mt. and &amp;#381;umberak Mt. Rad Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, 120, 1&amp;#8211;82. (in Croatian)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#352;uklje, F. (1929): Die Mediterranfauna des Zapre&amp;#353;i&amp;#263; Brijeg in der Samoborska gora in Kroatien. Bulletin de l'institut geologique de Zagreb, III, 1&amp;#8211;52. (in Croatian with German summary)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pavlovsky, M. (1957): Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis Mioz&amp;#228;ner Gastropoden von Zapre&amp;#353;i&amp;#263;-Brijeg bei Samobor. Geolo&amp;#353;ki vjesnik, 10 (1956), 51&amp;#8211;56. (in Croatian with German summary)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pavlovsky, M. (1960): Neue Elemente der Fauna von Zapre&amp;#353;i&amp;#263;-Brijeg bei Samobor. Geolo&amp;#353;ki vjesnik, XIII (1959), 213&amp;#8211;216. (in Croatian with German summary)&lt;/p&gt;