Established in 1975, it is the flagship institution of higher education in Slavonia, and one of the largest and oldest universities in Croatia.The University of Osijek is organized into 11 Faculties, an Academy and a number of other organizational units. In 1990 it took the name of progressive Roman Catholic bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer who was born in the city in 1815. Alongside nationally dominant University of Zagreb, the University of Osijek belongs to the mid-range public institutions established before the independence of Croatia together with the University of Rijeka and the University of Split.The university was established in 1970s, when several faculties were grouped under one university. In the years preceding the establishment of the university Croatia witnessed the establishment of new universities in Split and Rijeka. 1970s was a decade of exponential rise in number of higher education institutions in the rest of former Yugoslavia as well when universities in Maribor, Mostar, Banja Luka, Podgorica, Bitola, Kragujevac and Tuzla all opening their doors.The University of Osijek is a member of the European University Association.
Ecological models routinely rely on broad empirical regularities to constrain theory and validate predictions, yet these regularities are typically applied implicitly under alternative labels such as "patterns", "laws", or "benchmarks." Such implicit applications obscure a model's empirical commitments, hide unverified assumptions, mask scale dependencies, and hinder transfer across systems. Explicitly naming these regularities as "stylized facts" — a formalization with roots in economics and a robust application in ecology through Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory — changes their epistemic status: foundational constraints become searchable, comparable across studies, and directly auditable against empirical support. This review evaluates the epistemological role and methodological utility of explicit stylized facts across ecological modeling. We first survey their widespread but implicit use across subfields. We then use DEB as a focal example to examine how explicit stylized facts drive theoretical development through three modes — expansion, adjustment, and structural change — and how contradictory evidence, rather than invalidating a theory, defines its precise domain of applicability and motivates accountable theoretical pluralism. Auditing empirical support at the scale of the published literature is beyond what any author team can do by hand; what we report instead is a structured authors' confidence assessment covering both DEB's core stylized facts and a set of additional statements formulated by the author panel. Recognizing the bias inherent in any small panel and the sheer volume of the modern literature, we call for an AI-assisted, community-curated system for cataloguing and auditing stylized facts. Several long-standing assumptions already command markedly less confidence than their foundational status implies — and making that visible, and open to revision, is what turns a set of modeling conventions into an auditable empirical foundation.
The article takes a cognitive linguistic approach to numeral incorporation in sign languages and demonstrates on the material from 32 sign languages the indispensable role of metonymy within this family of constructions. These constructions are argued to be blends of signs for numerals, i.e., numerical handshapes, exhibiting high degree of iconicity, with base signs that denote a range of measurable/countable units within domains such as time and age, currency, grades, or floors, but also pronouns and classifiers. The base signs are claimed to be motivated primarily by conceptual metonymies rather than metaphors although their motivation need not be clearly transparent due to diachronic erosion and/or the fact that they become blended with numerical signs in a fashion that is similar to lexical blends in spoken/written languages and in sign languages.
Campi Flegrei caldera is currently experiencing an ongoing phase of volcanic unrest characterized by increasing seismicity, ground uplift (bradyseism), and enhanced hydrothermal degassing. Continuous monitoring of geochemical parameters is therefore essential for improving the understanding of subsurface processes associated with caldera evolution. In this study, a unique 15-year continuous dataset of soil-gas 222Rn activity concentrations, acquired by the RaMonA monitoring station between October 2011 and July 2026, was analysed together with local earthquake records and meteorological parameters. The influences of environmental variables on radon activity concentrations were evaluated using Spearman's rank correlation and multiple linear regression. The results indicate that meteorological parameters have only a limited influence on the observed radon variability, with regression models explaining approximately 2.6% of the variance for soil parameters and 1.7% for atmospheric parameters. After accounting for these effects, the radon time series exhibits a persistent long-term increasing trend that temporally coincides with the progressive intensification of local seismicity, particularly during the recent phase of accelerated unrest from 2021 onwards. Although the observed relationship does not imply a direct predictive capability for individual earthquake, it suggests that radon variations respond to the long-term evolution of the hydrothermal and stress conditions within the caldera. The presented 15-year continuous monitoring record, unique in the literature, demonstrates a persistent long-term increase in soil-gas radon activity concentrations accompanying the progressive unrest of the Campi Flegrei caldera, highlighting radon as a valuable complementary geochemical parameter within integrated volcanic surveillance systems.
Up to date, the development of highly efficient, visible light-active catalysts remains a formidable challenge due to the enhanced rising of atmospheric CO2 concentration. This study discusses a class of ceria-based high-entropy oxides designed to optimize charge carrier dynamics, surface reactivity, and CO2 activation efficiency. Due to the advantages of high configurational entropy and multi-element synergy, these materials achieved improved photocatalytic performance, surpassing conventional ceria-based systems. Structural and spectroscopic analyses reveal that Pr3+/Pr4+ redox pairs and abundant oxygen vacancies create an electronically disordered yet thermodynamically stable environment, which enhances charge separation and suppresses electron-hole recombination. Photocatalytic experiments demonstrated that Ce0.2Zr0.2La0.2Pr0.2Sm0.2O2-delta (CZLPS) achieves the highest CO2 conversion rate, reaching a conversion of 20.3% under visible light irradiation, significantly surpassing pure ceria (1.4%), with a calculated space-time yield (STY) of 10.15 mol(CO)kg(-1)h(-1) under the same conditions. First-principles density functional theory (DFT) simulations were employed to investigate the CO2 reduction mechanism on CZLPS catalysts. The study elucidates the Gibbs free energy changes (Delta G) for each step of the reaction pathways leading to CO and HCOOH formation, highlighting the Zr site of CZLPS as the most active for the CO2RR, which is responsible for the outstanding catalytic activity
Purpose: The widely spread membrane and soluble Klotho protein plays a pivotal role in vascular calcification by orchestrating calcium/phosphate/magnesium homeostasis mediated by the Klotho/fibroblast growth factor 23 receptor complex. Our aim was to review new scientific data and discuss the role(s) of Klotho in vascular calcification. The basic procedures were to review the literature concerning Klotho and its mechanisms of action during physiological and pathological aging. Main findings: A lack of Klotho shortens the lifespan, increases vascular calcification and the frequency of cardiovascular diseases with multiple organ degeneration and weakness in experimental animal models. In humans, the most prominent decrease of Klotho protein and mRNA is found in patients with chronic kidney disease-mineral and bone disorder (CKD-MBD), which shows accelerated aging due to increased vascular calcification. Additionally, Klotho acts in an endocrine manner participating in different signaling pathways as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-fibrotic and anti-aging mediator, preserving vascular structure and function. Principal conclusions: Klotho is a possible early marker for the detection and monitoring of subclinical arterial calcification in patients with CKD-MBD and in the general population.
