Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia

The FORTEe randomised controlled trial (NCT05289739) investigates an exercise intervention for children and adolescents undergoing cancer treatment. Conducting research with this vulnerable population poses unique ethical challenges, including participant burden, child autonomy, and parental decision-making. This study explored the ethical experiences of healthcare professionals (HCPs) involved in the trial. A multicentre survey was conducted across ten clinical sites in Europe using a structured, browser-based questionnaire comprising both closed and open-ended questions. Domains included burden and benefits assessment, informed consent, child autonomy, parental influence and moral distress. Quantitative responses were analysed descriptively, while qualitative data underwent content analysis. Seventy-nine HCPs participated, including exercise professionals (n = 30), physicians (n = 19), nurses (n = 8), psychologists (n = 5), social workers (n = 3), one social scientist, one medical ethicist and 12 individuals in other roles. A large majority of respondents (86.1%) agreed or strongly agreed that the overall burden-benefit balance of trial participation was appropriate, while 11.4% were unsure and 2.5% disagreed. Open-text responses described perceived challenges related to questionnaire burden, logistical demands, and emotional discomfort associated with control-group allocation. Informed consent procedures were generally perceived as appropriate. However, some respondents reported situations in which parental influence appeared to outweigh children’s expressed preferences, and difficulties were noted in assessing children’s evolving decision-making capacity. Among HCPs who described prognosis-related events (n = 45), 68.9% described experiences they associated with moral distress, particularly in relation to communication and decisions regarding continuation of participation. The trial's ethical climate was largely perceived as positive, though emotional and logistical burdens were noted. Reports of emotional discomfort and moral distress among staff highlight the ethical tensions between research integrity and individual well-being. Furthermore, divergent views on children’s capacity to give consent suggest the need for clearer guidance on paediatric autonomy and shared decision-making. Ethically sound paediatric research must address real-world burdens and emotional dynamics beyond procedural compliance. Findings from the FORTEe trial staff survey highlight the importance of flexible, child-centred approaches, sustainable access to beneficial interventions, and institutional structures that promote ethical reflection. Registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05289739, 21 March 2022) and in the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00027978, 28 January 2022).

The rainfall erosivity influences the detachment of soil particles, movement and washing away the surface soil layers, which affects soil degradation and leads to various environmental problems. It depends primarily on the kinetic energy of raindrops, determined by the size and velocity of raindrops. However, rainfall microstructure (size, velocity and number of raindrops) is significantly changed during the process of rainfall interception. Precipitation, that is not intercepted by the vegetation, reaches the ground as throughfall (falling directly through the gaps in the canopy or dripping from the leaves and branches) or stemflow (flowing down the branches and stem). Therefore, the kinetic energy of throughfall under the vegetation is different than kinetic energy of open rainfall.In the urban park located in Ljubljana, Slovenia, we have monitored the rainfall microstructure in the open and underneath the deciduous (Betula pendula Roth.) and coniferous (Pinus nigra Arnold) trees between 12 July 2022 and 19 July 2023. We have analysed the differences between rainfall microstructure and kinetic energy of raindrops in the open and underneath the trees.The observed average number of raindrops per event under both trees was lower than the number of raindrops in the open. Also, the average kinetic energy of drops per event was significantly lower under the trees than in the open. Additionally, an analysis of factors influencing the kinetic energy of throughfall drops underneath the both trees was performed using the boosted regression trees and random forest models. Both models identified rainfall amount as the most influencing factor.Acknowledgments: Results are part of the research programme P2-0180 and research projects J2-4489, N2-0313 and J6-4628, financed by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARIS).

Istraživanje je proučavalo uticaj eksperimentalnog proprioceptivnog treninga na brzinu usvajanja odabranih gimnastičkih elemenata na gredi kod učenika osnovne škole. Rezultati su pokazali da je eksperimentalni tretman imao pozitivan učinak na brže savladavanje tehničkih elemenata gimnastičkog višeboja na gredi. T-test i Wilcoksonov test su potvrdili statistički značajnu razliku između eksperimentalne i kontrolne grupe na nivou značajnosti od 0,01. Eksperimentalni tretman je imao statistički značajan uticaj na brzinu usvajanja gimnastičkih elemenata izvedenih u dinamičkoj ravnoteži, poput različitih vrsta okreta. S druge strane, nije ostvario statistički značajan uticaj na brzinu usvajanja statičkih elemenata poput prednje vage i visokog prednoženja, koji su se pokazali jednostavnijima za savladavanje. Istraživanje zaključuje da se ovako konstruiran eksperimentalni proprioceptivni trening može ponuditi kao efikasno trenažno sredstvo u radu s djecom osnovnoškolskog uzrasta, te da će ostvariti pozitivne uticaje na brzinu usvajanja gimnastičkih elemenata i motoričku sposobnost ravnoteže. Preporučuje se i duži period primjene tretmana za postizanje još snažnijeg uticaja.

Mariculture along the Slovene coastline is mainly mussel culture operated as a family business; in one case, it is combined with sea bass farming. It started in the early 70 s with cultivation of Mediterranean mussels, while today, the two largest producers incorporate the cultivation of Venus clams and oysters as species with higher economic value on the market. Currently, all mussels and clams produced in Slovenia are sold in the Slovenian, Italian, Croatian and French markets. The production of Mediterranean mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) has increased steadily, with the main obstacles being a limited area for cultivation, occasional harmful algal blooms, predation by gilthead seabream and flatworms. In addition, more recent summer heatwaves negatively affected mussel production when seawater reached high temperatures at the thermal limits unsuitable for mussel growth. This study aimed to collect first-hand information about the current mussel production technology, processes and needs to identify opportunities for innovations that could benefit the entire sector (increased knowledge, production yield, reduced workload and effort with administrative issues). The study was based on a semi-structured questionnaire with the owners of mussel farms. Analysis of the questionnaire was supplemented with current knowledge from the field and provided comprehensive insight into a small sector of mussel farming along the Slovenian coast and its possible development in the future.

Abstract Ethylene epoxidation is industrially and commercially one of the most important selective oxidations. Silver catalysts have been state‐of‐the‐art for decades, their efficiency steadily improving with empirical discoveries of dopants and co‐catalysts. Herein, we perform a computational screening of the metals in the periodic table, identify prospective superior catalysts and experimentally demonstrate that Ag/CuPb, Ag/CuCd and Ag/CuTl outperform the pure‐Ag catalysts, while they still confer an easily scalable synthesis protocol. Furthermore, we show that to harness the potential of computationally‐led discovery of catalysts fully, it is essential to include the relevant in situ conditions e.g., surface oxidation, parasitic side reactions and ethylene epoxide decomposition, as neglecting such effects leads to erroneous predictions. We combine ab initio calculations, scaling relations, and rigorous reactor microkinetic modelling, which goes beyond conventional simplified steady‐state or rate‐determining modelling on immutable catalyst surfaces. The modelling insights have enabled us to both synthesise novel catalysts and theoretically understand experimental findings, thus, bridging the gap between first‐principles simulations and industrial applications. We show that the computational catalyst design can be easily extended to include larger reaction networks and other effects, such as surface oxidations. The feasibility was confirmed by experimental agreement.

Precipitation is one of the essential parts of the hydrological cycle. Regardless of the important role that precipitation plays for life on Earth, in extreme conditions, such as high intensities and amounts, it can negatively affect various ecosystem services (e.g., flood protection, agriculture). Precipitation is spatially highly variable. Traditionally, precipitation, with rain as the most common type, is measured over very small surface areas (of a few square decimetres) by rain gauges or sensors. However, reliable and representative rainfall data are crucial for understanding the interconnection of different parts of the hydrological cycle (e.g., rainfall interception by vegetation, rainfall erosivity) and quantification of flood, drought, water quality, and other water-related problems. Reducing the negative consequences of the mentioned problems is part of the 2030 Agenda sustainable development goals. Therefore, an interdisciplinary student project on the design and construction of a rainfall simulator was submitted to the University of Ljubljana's call for sustainable development student projects. Rainfall simulators are recognized as important tools for studying the effects of rain on soil. Rainfall simulators can be used in controlled conditions in the laboratory or with additional settings also in the field. The design and construction of the simulator is entirely within the domain of the project team of six students of environmental civil engineering and electrical engineering. This includes the choice of pipe materials, pump capacity, size and type of spray nozzles, development of a control system for monitoring and recording of results, and, last but not least, the determination of rain properties we would like to simulate (e.g., intensity). Three pedagogical mentors and one mentor outside the academia supervise the project. With such a project, group work and co-creation are encouraged among students, theoretical knowledge acquired within the curriculum is transferred into practice and knowledge is exchanged between different disciplines. Skills such as communication, critical thinking, organization of tasks and time management, interdisciplinary problem solving, analytical reasoning, information and technology literacy, are developed in the project. Additionally, such equipment will be used for teaching and research purposes in the future, which is another sustainable feature of this project.

<p>The reference hydrological conditions describe the natural discharge as it would be without the exploitation of the water resources. The measured values of the discharge are obtained in the scope of national hydrological monitoring and are in most cases reduced for the amount of abstracted water. Therefore, the values measured in this way provide information on the amount of residual water in the river and not the total amount of water that would be available without abstraction. However, knowing the natural hydrological state is important when calculating the ecological flow and planning the future water use. For this purpose, our goal was to established the methodology for estimating the reference discharge on any water body in Slovenia with catchment size larger than 10 km<sup>2</sup>. The development of the methodology was based on detailed simulations of reference hydrological conditions for 56 selected cases. As those simulations require extensive data preparation and are very time consuming, we intended to generalize the results obtained for selected cases to the whole country using clustering analysis. The hierarchical clustering and K-means approach were applied taking into account different model arguments (e.g. number of clusters, distance metrics, number of iterations). First we have grouped the simulation points to check which of the attribute data influence the classification the most. Than clustering was repeated on the data set representing points distributed over the whole country as well as simulation points. However, the further analysis of the clustering results and application of other methods for generalization showed, that clustering analysis is in this case suitable for analysis of patterns in data and identification of influential variables, while generalization turned out to be better performed applying multiple regression analysis.</p>

Zdravniški vestnik je odigral pomembno vlogo v razvoju sodobne slovenske medicine in slovenskega medicinskega jezika, zlasti terminologije. Namen članka je na kratko prikazati razvoj Zdravniškega vestnika od njegove ustanovitve 1929 do danes.

Phytobenthic diatoms and macrophyte communities respond differently to stressors in aquatic environments. For the assessment of the ecological status of rivers in Slovenia, we use several indices, including the River Macrophyte Index (RMI) and Trophic index (TI) based on macrophyte and phytobenthic diatoms communities, respectively. In the present study, we examined the relationships between nutrient variables and values of RMI and TI using varied stressor gradient lengths. We also aimed to explain the variability of macrophyte and diatom communities with different stressors, namely nutrients and land cover variables and their combinations. The relationships of RMI and TI with nutrient variables varied significantly and were affected by the length of the stressor gradient. We obtained a stronger relationship between the RMI and total phosphorous at an approximately <0.3-mg/L annual mean value, while, for the relationships with the TI, the values were significant at bigger gradient lengths. The greatest share of variability in the macrophyte and diatom community was explained by the combination of land use and nutrient variables and the lowest share by phosphorus and nitrogen variables. When we applied a composite stressor gradient, it explained a similar share of the variability of both macrophyte and diatom communities (up to 26%). A principal component analysis (PCA) based on land use and nutrient stressor gradient revealed that the relationship between RMI EQR and PCA1 that represents intensive agriculture depends on the length of the gradient. The relationship was stronger for shorter gradients at lower values and decreased as the gradient extended towards higher values. Both tested assessment methods showed that macrophyte communities are more sensitive to shorter stressor gradients of lower values, whereas diatom communities are more sensitive to longer stressor gradient and higher values of the stressor.