1. The different aspects of the housing quality of older adults : which criteria should be prioritized?Richard Sendi, Maša Filipovič Hrast, Ajda Šeme, Boštjan Kefo Kerbler, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: Various studies have identified that older adults’ assessment oftheir housing quality differs from that deemed as good quality housing by housing professionals. This has prompted the need to advance academic discourse beyond simply reporting highlevels of satisfaction in older adult’s housing surveys. This studyattempts to achieve this by using empirical data gatheredthrough a mixed quantitative and qualitative research approachconducted with older adults in Slovenia. While the quantitativesurvey revealed generally high levels of satisfaction, the qualitative face-to-face interviews revealed numerous deficiencies,irrespective of whether older adults tended to express satisfaction with their dwellings. Therefore, our findings suggest thatattributes such as ownership, period of residence, and neighborhood relations are far more important in determining housing satisfaction. Thus, we conclude that policies and programsfor modifying housing for older adults must be based ona deeper understanding of their specific needs. During thepolicy formulation process and the implementation of specifichousing improvement programs, emphasis should be placed onthe social-historical aspects related to the lifestyle of each specific older adult. Published in DiRROS: 10.02.2025; Views: 11; Downloads: 10
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2. Ljubljana - European green capital 2016 : from strategic spatial planning to governanceKaliopa Dimitrovska Andrews, Matej Nikšič, Luka Mladenovič, Boštjan Cotič, Barbara Mušič, Boštjan Kefo Kerbler, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: Ljubljana was the first post-socialist city awarded with the title European Green Capital. The title awarded by the European Commission is given to a city that is achieving high environmental standards, is setting ambitious goals for further environmental improvement and sustainable development, and can act as a role model to inspire other cities and promote best practices to all other European cities. The article is based on a hypothesis that at the moment when Ljubljana applied for (and was awarded) the European Green Capital title, it had strong strategic spatial planning and successful territorial governance, as well as the interweaving of both. To prove the hypothesis, the timetable and characteristics of the strategic spatial planning and territorial governance in Ljubljana are presented in this article and critically evaluated. Critical evaluation and analyses are also assessed using a qualitative research method, i.e., semi-structured in-depth interviews among experts from four professional fields including spatial planning, urbanism, architecture, and management. The results confirmed the hypothesis: Ljubljana’s sustainability-oriented strategic spatial plan prepared by a variety of stakeholders, experts, and citizens, as well as the effective governance system established by the mayor, a manager by profession, were two factors that coincided at a crucial moment. This was recognized by the European Commission and Ljubljana was awarded a prestigious title. Ljubljana can therefore serve as an excellent sustainable example for other post-socialist cities in terms of strategic spatial planning and governance. Keywords: sustainable city development, urban planning, post-socialist city, sustainable innovation Published in DiRROS: 10.02.2025; Views: 12; Downloads: 9
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3. Quaternionic Cartan coverings and applicationsJasna Prezelj, Fabio Vlacci, 2025, original scientific article Abstract: We present the topological foundations for solvability of multiplicative Cousin problems formulated on an axially symmetric domain Ω⊂H. In particular, we provide a geometric construction of quaternionic Cartan coverings, which are generalizations of (complex) Cartan coverings as presented in Section 4 of Forstnerič and Prezelj (Math. Ann. 322(4), 633-666 (2002)). Because of the requirements of symmetry inherent to the domains of definition of quaternionic regular functions, the existence of quaternionic Cartan coverings of Ω is not a consequence of the existence of complex Cartan coverings; for the latter, there are no requirements for the symmetries with respect to the real axis. Due to the real axis’s special role, also the covering restricted to Ω∩R must have additional properties. All these required properties were achieved by starting from a particular symmetric tiling of the symmetric set Ω∩(R+iR). Finally, we apply these results to prove the vanishing of ’antisymmetric’ cohomology groups of planar symmetric domains for n≥2. Keywords: quaternionic Cartan coverings, antisymmetric cohomology groups Published in DiRROS: 10.02.2025; Views: 13; Downloads: 11
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5. Partial asynchrony of coniferous forest carbon sources and sinks at the intra-annual time scaleRoberto Silvestro, Maurizio Mencuccini, Franco Biondi, Jesus Julio Camarero, Alberto Arzac, Filipe Campelo, Katarina Čufar, Henri E. Cuny, Martin De Luis, Annie Deslauriers, Jožica Gričar, Peter Prislan, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: As major terrestrial carbon sinks, forests play an important role in mitigating climate change. The relationship between the seasonal uptake of carbon and its allocation to woody biomass remains poorly understood, leaving a significant gap in our capacity to predict carbon sequestration by forests. Here, we compare the intra-annual dynamics of carbon fluxes and wood formation across the Northern hemisphere, from carbon assimilation and the formation of non-structural carbon compounds to their incorporation in woody tissues. We show temporally coupled seasonal peaks of carbon assimilation (GPP) and wood cell differentiation, while the two processes are substantially decoupled during off-peak periods. Peaks of cambial activity occur substantially earlier compared to GPP, suggesting the buffer role of non-structural carbohydrates between the processes of carbon assimilation and allocation to wood. Our findings suggest that high-resolution seasonal data of ecosystem carbon fluxes, wood formation and the associated physiological processes may reduce uncertainties in carbon source-sink relationships at different spatial scales, from stand to ecosystem levels. Keywords: carbon sinks, forests, conifers, intra-annual resolution Published in DiRROS: 10.02.2025; Views: 15; Downloads: 9
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6. Molecular analysis of scats revealed diet and prey choice of grey wolves and Eurasian lynx in the contact zone between the Dinaric Mountains and the AlpsElena Bužan, Hubert Potočnik, Boštjan Pokorny, Sandra Potušek, Laura Iacolina, Urška Gerič, Felicita Urzi, Ivan Kos, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: A comprehensive understanding of the dietary habits of carnivores is essential to get ecological insights into their role in the ecosystem, potential competition with other carnivorous species, and their effect on prey populations. Genetic analysis of non-invasive samples, such as scats, can supplement behavioural or microscopic diet investigations. The objective of this study was to employ DNA metabarcoding to accurately determine the prey species in grey wolf (Canis lupus) and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) scat samples collected in the Julian Alps and the Dinaric Mountains, Slovenia. The primary prey of wolves were red deer (Cervus elaphus) (detected in 96% scat samples), European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) (68%), and wild boar (Sus scrofa) (45%). A smaller portion of their diet consisted of mesocarnivores, small mammals, and domestic animals. In contrast, the lynx diet mostly consisted of European roe deer (82%) and red deer (64%). However, small mammals and domestic animals were also present in lynx diet, albeit to a lesser extent. Our findings indicate that the dietary habits of wolves and lynx are influenced by geographical location. Snapshot dietary analyses using metabarcoding are valuable for comprehending the behaviour and ecology of predators, and for devising conservation measures aimed at sustainable management of both their natural habitats and prey populations. However, to gain a more detailed understanding of wolf and lynx dietary habits and ecological impact, it would be essential to conduct long-term genetic monitoring of their diet. Keywords: dietary analysis, non-invasice samples, scats, metabarcoding, Canis lupus, Lynx lynx Published in DiRROS: 10.02.2025; Views: 11; Downloads: 10
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7. Primernost ostankov mlete kave za proizvodnjo peletovDominika Gornik Bučar, Peter Prislan, Dejan Verhovšek, Bojan Gospodarič, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: Za doseganje cilja evropske energetsko-podnebne politike, da do leta 2050 dosežemo podnebno nevtralnost s prehodom na obnovljive vire energije, je potrebno aktivirati različne razpoložljive obnovljive vire, vključno z biološkimi ostanki oz. odpadki. Eden od takih bioloških odpadkov, ki nastaja v velikih količinah in se večinoma nepredelan odlaga v okolje, so ostanki mlete kave. Ker ostanke mlete kave sestavljajo celuloza, hemiceluloza, lignin in proteini, predstavljajo velik potencial tudi kot biogorivo, ki lahko delno nadomesti lesno biomaso pri proizvodnji peletov. V raziskavi smo v laboratorijskih pogojih izdelali pelete iz ostankov mlete kave, ki smo jim dodali različne deleže (0 %, 25 %, 50 %, 75 %) žagovine. Izdelanim peletom smo določili lastnosti in jih glede na izmerjene vrednosti razvrstili v kakovostne razrede po standardu SIST EN ISO 17225-6:2021. Ugotovili smo, da imajo peleti z večjim deležem ostankov mlete kave višjo kurilno vrednost, večjo vsebnost pepela ter nižjo mehansko obstojnost. Peleti, izdelani iz ostankov mlete kave in dodatkom žagovine (50 % ali več), izkazujejo obetavne lastnosti kot vhodna surovina za proizvodnjo peletov. Keywords: peleti, ostanki mlete kave, žagovina, biološki odpadki, kurilna vrednost, kakovost peletov Published in DiRROS: 10.02.2025; Views: 15; Downloads: 9
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8. No future growth enhancement expected at the Northern edge for European beech due to continued water limitationStefan Klesse, Richard Peters, Raquel Alfaro-Sánchez, Vincent Badeau, Claudia Baittinger, Katarina Čufar, Jožica Gričar, Maks Merela, Peter Prislan, Tom Levanič, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: With ongoing global warming, increasing water deficits promote physiological stress on forest ecosystems with negative impacts on tree growth, vitality, and survival. How individual tree species will react to increased drought stress is therefore a key research question to address for carbon accounting and the development of climate change mitigation strategies. Recent tree-ring studies have shown that trees at higher latitudes will benefit from warmer temperatures, yet this is likely highly species-dependent and less well-known for more temperate tree species. Using a unique pan-European tree-ring network of 26,430 European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) trees from 2118 sites, we applied a linear mixed-effects modeling framework to (i) explain variation in climate-dependent growth and (ii) project growth for the near future (2021–2050) across the entire distribution of beech. We modeled the spatial pattern of radial growth responses to annually varying climate as a function of mean climate conditions (mean annual temperature, mean annual climatic water balance, and continentality). Over the calibration period (1952–2011), the model yielded high regional explanatory power (R2 = 0.38–0.72). Considering a moderate climate change scenario (CMIP6 SSP2-4.5), beech growth is projected to decrease in the future across most of its distribution range. In particular, projected growth decreases by 12%–18% (interquartile range) in northwestern Central Europe and by 11%–21% in the Mediterranean region. In contrast, climate-driven growth increases are limited to around 13% of the current occurrence, where the historical mean annual temperature was below ~6°C. More specifically, the model predicts a 3%–24% growth increase in the high-elevation clusters of the Alps and Carpathian Arc. Notably, we find little potential for future growth increases (−10 to +2%) at the poleward leading edge in southern Scandinavia. Because in this region beech growth is found to be primarily water-limited, a northward shift in its distributional range will be constrained by water availability. Keywords: climate change, climate sensitivity, drought, Fagus sylvatica, growth projection, leading edge, trailing edge, tree rings Published in DiRROS: 10.02.2025; Views: 14; Downloads: 8
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10. A new cave-dwelling hadzioid amphipod (Senticaudata, Hadzioidea, Melitidae) from sulfidic groundwaters in IranMohammad Javad Malek-Hosseini, Traian Brad, Yaser Fatemi, Matjaž Kuntner, Cene Fišer, 2024, original scientific article Keywords: caves, extreme environments, Amphipoda Published in DiRROS: 10.02.2025; Views: 14; Downloads: 12
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