West Balkan Research Articles

Iskar Gorge and Ledenika cave - a brief overview

The Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic sequences in the Svoge, West Balkan and Fore-Balkan units (Western Bulgaria) are exposed in eight points. Most of the points are within the area of the Iskar Gorge. At point 1, SE of the village of Redina on the road to Svoge, the rocks of the Late Carboniferous Svoge Formation can be observed – terrigenous sediments of alluvial-limnic character with preserved megaflora. Triassic and Jurassic sequences are traced in the area of point 2 near the village of Zasele. Point 3 is in Triassic sediments and provides a view from the east of the Upper Carboniferous diorites of the Petrohan intrusion. Karst processes are developed in some sections of the Iskar Gorge and caves of different sizes can be seen. One of them is the Temnata Dupka Cave (point 4), which is formed in the Middle Triassic rocks of the Iskar Carbonate Group. In the area of the village of Cherepish (point 5), the lower part of the Lower Cretaceous Vratsa Urgonian Group (Cherepish Formation) is exposed. The upper level of the Vratsa Urgonian Group can be traced in the next point 6, where the geological phenomenon Ritlite (Lyutibrod Formation) is situated. In the area of the village of Chelopek (point 7), a continuous section between the Cretaceous and Paleogene is observed. Southwest of Vratsa, at point 8, the Ledenika Cave is revealed, located in the Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous carbonate sediments of the Gintsi Formation.

Predictors of Successful Maintenance Practices in Companies Using Fluid Power Systems: A Model-Agnostic Interpretation

The study identifies critical factors influencing companies’ operational and sustainability performance utilising fluid power systems. Firstly, the study performs Machine Learning (ML) modelling using variables extracted from survey instruments in the West Balkan region. The dataset comprises 115 companies (38.75% response rate). The survey data consist of 22 predictors, including meta-data and three target variables. The K-Nearest Neighbours algorithm offers the highest predictive accuracy compared to the other seven ML models, including Ridge Regression, Support Vector Regression, and ElasticNet Regression. Next, using a model-agnostic interpretation, we assess feature importance using mean dropout loss. After extracting the most essential features, we test hypotheses to understand individual variables’ local and global interpretation of maintenance performance metrics. The findings suggest that Failure Analysis Personnel, data analytics, and the usage of advanced technological solutions significantly impact the availability and sustainability of these systems.

„In Vielfalt vereint“ – Die wirtschaftliche Lage in den Beitrittsländern nach 20 Jahren in der EU

Abstract Twenty years have passed since the largest enlargement of the European Union in history. During the eastern enlargement, 10 new member states entered the union, seven of which belonged to the former Eastern bloc. The new members have since experienced astonishing growth rates, closing the large gap between them and the rest of the EU. The GDP growth rates were consistently higher than those of the original members. Now, the EU must once again look east: the integration of the West Balkan countries would be a crucial step in the future development of the EU, not only economically, but also politically, provided the formal provisions of an accession are satisfied. A strong united Europe benefits all.

Structural Investigation of Drini River Bridges, Case Study of Structures Analyses

The Drini is the longest river not only in Albania, but in the west Balkan region, with a total length of 285 km. It is well known for a lot of number and famous bridges constructed since the antiquity period and continuing nowadays. This paper is focused on the structural development of bridges that used to be called “Kukësi Bridges” located over the White and Black Drini rivers. The old bridges were built and designed in 1974 using KTP Albanian national codes, carrying the first-class road until the building of a national road. The new bridge is in the final construction stage with the reconstruction of the national road highway, designed with advanced requirements regarding Eurocode standards. This paper analyses the structural bridges' progress related to historical and technical points of view.

The Influence of Cultural and Personal Properties on Job Performances and Organizational Commitment in Teleworkers

Abstract The paper presents the results of research on the impact of national culture, big five personality traits, and emotional intelligence on job performances and organizational commitment in teleworkers in West Balkan countries. These impacts were also determined for employees in conventional working arrangements, which enabled a comparison of the results for these two groups of respondents. The research was conducted in the countries of the West Balkan and included 313 respondents. National culture and emotional intelligence have a greater impact on job performances and organizational commitment for employees in conventional working arrangements than in teleworkers. Big five personality traits in some cases affect stronger for employees in conventional working arrangements, while in some cases they affect more powerfully in teleworkers. Teleworkers are less influenced by the environment, and thus less influenced by national culture. Also, teleworkers have fewer opportunities to use emotional intelligence in achieving business goals.

Application of the DPSIR approach to identify pressures on water resources in the Drina river basin

As the global population grows, we are witnessing rapid urbanization and the development of industry and agriculture. Novel, largely toxic substances are being used in agriculture to improve yields. All of this has led to the generation of large amounts of pollutants that need to be disposed of and treated. Irresponsible behavior and discharges into nature and river channels not clearly defined by law or sanctioned, certainly have an environmental impact. The Drina River Basin occupies parts of the territories of four countries. It is one of the most important drainage areas in the West Balkans. It calls for international cooperation in many areas, such as public water supply, irrigation, hydropower generation, and the like. However, in order to achieve such cooperation, all the countries that “steward” the resource need to commit to water quality conservation and protection. The DPSIR approach proposed by the Water Framework Directive of the European Union is followed to identify major pressures (pollution sources) in the Serbian part of the Drina River Basin. The pressures are grouped into several categories and described in detail.

Do the Same Determinants Affect Banks’ Profitability and Liquidity? Evidence from West Balkan Countries Using a Panel Data Regression Analysis

This study aims to determine whether the same bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants affect banks’ profitability and liquidity. To achieve the set goal, panel data regression analysis was applied with fixed effects or random effects depending on the results of the Hausman test, as explained in the Results. The research is based on the use of aggregate data on bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants of banks’ profitability and liquidity in West Balkan countries during the period from 2007 to 2022. The dependent variables in the study are ROA, ROE used as proxies for banks’ profitability, and banks’ liquid reserves to banks’ total assets as a proxy for banks’ liquidity. The findings confirm that the bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants affect both banks’ profitability and liquidity in the same direction, except for a few variables. The main contribution of this research is a comprehensive and parallel view of banks’ profitability and liquidity determinants that enables a guide for bank management to better understand the significance of bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants’ effects on their business. The obtained results can improve the balance between the two important principles of banking business.

ROAD2H: Development and evaluation of an open-source explainable artificial intelligence approach for managing co-morbidity and clinical guidelines.

Clinical decision support (CDS) systems (CDSSs) that integrate clinical guidelines need to reflect real-world co-morbidity. In patient-specific clinical contexts, transparent recommendations that allow for contraindications and other conflicts arising from co-morbidity are a requirement. In this work, we develop and evaluate a non-proprietary, standards-based approach to the deployment of computable guidelines with explainable argumentation, integrated with a commercial electronic health record (EHR) system in Serbia, a middle-income country in West Balkans. We used an ontological framework, the Transition-based Medical Recommendation (TMR) model, to represent, and reason about, guideline concepts, and chose the 2017 International global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) guideline and a Serbian hospital as the deployment and evaluation site, respectively. To mitigate potential guideline conflicts, we used a TMR-based implementation of the Assumptions-Based Argumentation framework extended with preferences and Goals (ABA+G). Remote EHR integration of computable guidelines was via a microservice architecture based on HL7 FHIR and CDS Hooks. A prototype integration was developed to manage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with comorbid cardiovascular or chronic kidney diseases, and a mixed-methods evaluation was conducted with 20 simulated cases and five pulmonologists. Pulmonologists agreed 97% of the time with the GOLD-based COPD symptom severity assessment assigned to each patient by the CDSS, and 98% of the time with one of the proposed COPD care plans. Comments were favourable on the principles of explainable argumentation; inclusion of additional co-morbidities was suggested in the future along with customisation of the level of explanation with expertise. An ontological model provided a flexible means of providing argumentation and explainable artificial intelligence for a long-term condition. Extension to other guidelines and multiple co-morbidities is needed to test the approach further.

Does gender diversity improve CSR reporting? Evidence from the Central and West Balkan banking sector

This study aims to investigate the effect of gender diversity in board of directors in banks on environmental, economic, social, and governance (CSR) reporting. The sample comprises 85 banks operating in the Central and West Balkan region. Research results suggest that gender diversity in a two-tier board system in bank boards does not affect CSR reporting as measured by the constructed EESG index with statistical significance. However, taking into consideration specific elements of this index, we found that gender diversity on the supervisory board had a positive effect on variables that compose this index. This is the first study to provide insight into gender and the CSR reporting nexus in the Central and West Balkan region. This study contributes to the discussions on those issues in a global scale and in terms of the banking sector in particular.

HEART Score and Its Implementation in Emergency Medicine Departments in the West Balkan Region-A Pilot Study.

Chest pain represents a prevalent complaint in emergency departments (EDs), where the precise differentiation between acute coronary syndrome and alternative conditions assumes paramount significance. This pilot study aimed to assess the HEART score's implementation in West Balkan EDs. A retrospective analysis was performed on a prospective cohort comprising patients presenting with chest pain admitted to EDs in Sarajevo, Zenica, and Belgrade between July and December 2022. A total of 303 patients were included, with 128 classified as low-risk based on the HEART score and 175 classified as moderate-to-high-risk. The low-risk patients exhibited younger age and a lower prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. Laboratory and anamnestic findings revealed higher levels of C-reactive protein, ALT, and creatinine, higher rates of moderately to highly suspicious chest pain history, a greater number of cardiovascular risk factors, and elevated troponin levels in moderate-to-high-risk patients. Comparatively, among patients with a low HEART score, 2.3% experienced MACE, whereas those with a moderate-to high-risk HEART score had a MACE rate of 10.2%. A moderate-to-high-risk HEART score demonstrated a sensitivity of 91.2% (95%CI 90.2-93.4%) and specificity of 46.5% (95%CI 39.9-48.3%) for predicting MACE. This pilot study offers preliminary insights into the integration of the HEART score within the emergency departments of the West Balkan region.

Land as a resource for biomass production

Soil cover on the area of the West Balkans is very heterogeneous. Due to limited possibilities of increasing arable lands, an issue relating to rational utilization of the existing land reserves has been raised. Namely, an increase of food costs, which coincides with global increase of biofuel production, leads to thinking that fuel production induces an increase of food costs. Suitability of land space for specific purpose utilization is based on long-term economy. This problem would be solved by biomass production on marginal lands, because productive arable lands would be intended for food production. Lands that are suitable for exploitation in intensive agricultural production and appropriate for cultivation are classified into I-IV land capability class, and lands that are less suitable and unsuitable for exploitation (marginal lands) are classified into V-VIII land capability class. In the opinion of most researchers, economic production of wood and grass biomass should be developed on the lands of IV-VIII land capability class. Thereby, there is a high percentage of abandoned and marginal agricultural lands in some countries of the West Balkans. Regarding a high percentage of meadows and pastures, which are mainly on land areas of V-VIII class and insufficient exploitation thereof, the potential of available land areas for crop cultivation for obtaining biomass is very big. They can include even temporarily lost areas (greenfields and brownfields) as well as the areas under powerlines. Land composition has a limited effect on elements concentration in the biomass and on its quality. The crops cultivated for obtaining biomass generally have low demands for nutrients and are adaptable to various land conditions. The reserves of the land organic carbon can be increased by biomass production, and in that way soil fertility can be improved. Whether through biomass production the biodiversity will be improved or decreased, it depends on the mode of utilization of land areas and on the cultivated crop management practice.

A Silhouette-Width-Induced Hierarchical Clustering for Defining Flood Estimation Regions

Flood quantile estimation in ungauged basins is often performed using regional analysis. A regionalization procedure consists of two phases: the definition of homogeneous regions among gauged basins, i.e., clusters of stations, and information transfer to the ungauged sites. Due to its simplicity and widespread use, a combination of hierarchical clustering by Ward’s algorithm and the index-flood method is applied in this research. While hierarchical clustering is very efficient, its shortcomings are the lack of flexibility in the definition of clusters/regions and the inability to transfer objects/stations from one cluster center to another. To overcome this, using silhouette width for induced clustering of stations in flood studies is proposed in this paper. A regionalization procedure is conducted on 53 gauging stations under a continental climate in the West Balkans. In the induced clustering, a negative silhouette width is used as an indicator for the relocation of station(s) to another cluster. The estimates of mean annual flood and 100-year flood quantiles assessed by the original and induced clustering are compared. A jackknife procedure is applied for mean annual flood estimation and 100-year flood quantiles. Both the Hosking–Wallis and Anderson–Darling bootstrap tests provide better results regarding the homogeneity of the defined regions for the induced clustering compared to the original one. The goodness-of-fit measures indicate improved clustering results by the proposed intervention, reflecting flood quantile estimation at the stations with significant overestimation by the original clustering.

Risk Influence of Employee Productivity on Business Failure: Evidence Found in Serbian SMEs

This research paper analyzes low productivity of company workforce as the key risk factor to business sustainability of a company, with special attention to small and medium-sized companies. The scope of research involves for-profit, and small and medium-sized companies doing business in Serbia. This paper explores whether poor human resource management, and, more particularly, low productivity of employees represent one of the key reasons for poor business performance and eventually failure of the company. The quantitative part of this research was conducted during 2022, by analyzing 468 small and medium-sized companies with less than 250 employees, who ended their business during 2021. Current theory determines human resource management in companies, the influence of different sorts on overall business performance, and employee productivity and its causal effects on business survival. This study attempts to cover identified literature gaps by analyzing the risk influences of low productivity on the failure of small and medium-sized companies, with special diversification between manufacturing and service-oriented companies. Key findings from this research were defined with the help of statistical learning methods, suggesting direct correlation of low productivity in the case of small services-oriented businesses and medium-sized manufacturing companies. Future work on this research includes extension of the analysis to other countries in the West Balkans region and the comparation of all determined causalities.

Constitutional Origins of Ethnic Nationalism: Cultural Aporia of a Nation-State

In the spring of 2021, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, received a non-paper titled “West Balkans—A Way Forward.” The scandalous paper envisaged a redrawing of several national borders in the West Balkans. Among other changes, it proposed “the unification of Kosovo and Albania” and the “joining of larger parts of the Republika Srpska’s territory with Serbia.”1 However, this scandalous proposition, which the EU preferred to meet with silence, was not limited to a redrawing of the borders. What was also scandalous was the ratio of the proposed territorial changes. The redrawing was proposed along the lines of ethnic majorities populating the regions in question (Albanians in Kosovo or Serbs in the Republika Srpska). While the state borders were drawn following a logic of ethnicity, the idea of a multiethnic nation seemed to exceed the imagination of the paper’s authors. For them, nations were to be ethnically homogeneous.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF INTRODUCING CANOE POLO IN THE SPORT SYSTEM OF WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES

The International Canoe Federation includes 10 forms of kayaking and canoeing and recognizes 4 additional disciplines. One of the most popular is canoe polo. Canoe polo is a team sport that belongs to the family of sports games. Two teams of five players each fight to score more goals, with a water polo ball, in a pool of specific dimensions. Canoe polo developed in parallel in three similar variants of the rules, as an alternative to paddling during windy and cold winter days. Canoe polo contains the largest number of different techniques in relation to all paddling sports, while ball handling is done with a mixture of water polo, handball, basketball, and volleyball techniques. Simultaneous handling of the ball, with an overview of the game and interfering with the opponent is a very demanding coordination activity that does not exist in paddling in nature with different obstacles, both in terms of content and dynamics. Today, canoe polo is played in about 40 countries. Wild and flat water kayak and canoe disciplines have existed in the countries of the Western Balkans outside the European Union for many years, while canoe polo activities, clubs and competitions do not exist at all. The introduction of canoe polo in the sports systems of the West Balkan countries outside of European Union can be used as a means to popularize canoeing, as well as to raise the quality of canoeists by applying situational and super-situational training methods. Very demanding activities during more diverting trainings, with a greater opportunity to compete, as well as with a longer and more meaningful competition calendar, can significantly improve the skills needed for kayaking and canoeing in all its manifestations. In addition, the economic effect of development through sports facilities, infrastructure and boats with protective equipment should not be neglected, which at some point may become the basis for the organization of domestic and international competitions.

Evaluating Bank Efficiency in the West Balkan Countries Using Data Envelopment Analysis

The financial systems of the West Balkan countries are mainly based on banks. For an efficient financial system, it is of immense importance that the banks operating in it do so with high levels of efficiency. Furthermore, efficiency is needed when it comes to involving banking institutions in the financial flows in order to maintain sustainability of the financial construction. The aim of this paper is to determine whether there is a difference in efficiency between the considered countries and thus to show which changes the decisionmakers have to make in order to improve the efficiency of their banking systems. We analyze data from the revised financial statements of all banks operating in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia for the period from 2015 to 2019, using loans and investment as input variables and interest income, non-interest income and net income as output variables. The results obtained from the output-oriented DEA model with a variable return to scale have shown higher efficiency levels in North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, while Serbia and Albania show lower efficiency. The individual analyses have shown that in order to improve efficiency levels, improvement is needed more in the correction of the investment amounts then in loan placements.

Manganese carbonate minerals and their alteration products in Silurian metalliferous nodules from the region of Asaritsa peak, West Balkan Mountain

The studied Silurian nodules have hard light cores and dark shells. The cores consist of quartz with disseminated zonal carbonate mineral and pyrite. Zones in the carbonate have a variable composition from Mn-containing siderite, ankerite and dolomite to mixed Fe-Mn carbonate and Fe-containing rhodochrosite. The nodule shells are composed of quartz, chlorite, sericite, goethite, Mn-Fe oxyhydroxides and siderite. Fe-Mn oxyhydroxides in the nodule shells are formed due to an alteration of the carbonate minerals and inherited their composition. The formation of the nodules with Fe- and Mn-carbonates is related to diagenetic processes under reducing conditions of low Eh and high pH values. Later, carbonate minerals were altered into Fe-Mn oxyhydroxides. These alteration changes can be related to the influence of later magmatic activity in the area. An example of this activity is the presence of an igneous bodies established on both sides of the section.

Kerkia Radoman, 1978 (Caenogastropoda: Hydrobiidae): endemism, apparently morphostatic evolution and cryptic speciation

ABSTRACT Kerkia is a snail genus inhabiting mainly subterranean waters. Live specimens of Kerkia were collected in the West Balkans. Mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and nuclear histone H3 were sequenced. Populations of Kerkia molecularly represented 10 mOTUs, each deserving a species rank. Apart from known species, five new species are described. The interspecies differences in shell morphology were slight and thus morphology did not reflect the evident molecular differences. All available information about the penes and female reproductive organs are summarised and their limited usefulness in species-level taxonomy is discussed. Kerkia seems to represent another example of morphostatic evolution, a result of non-adaptive radiation marked by the rapid proliferation of sibling species, whose ecology most probably remains the same. In Kerkia, intrapopulation genetic diversity does not (or almost does not) exist, and the same is true for intraspecies variation. At the same time, there is a high level of molecular difference between the species. Despite potential means for range expansion of the stygobiont fauna provided by interstitial habitats, which reduce the levels of endemism in some stygobiont gastropod species, the species of stygobiont Kerkia are restricted to small geographic areas. LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F710D90A-4427-4C64-AAFE-5ADE89EEAABC

A Distributed Ledger Technology Roadmap for Albania: Some Preliminary Reflections

Albania is a small country of the West Balkans situated in Southeast Europe still in the early stages of distributed ledger technology (DLT) adoption. In this research note, we begin to investigate the cryptocurrency regulatory framework and propose a national blockchain roadmap for the country. Albania was one of the first European nations to elaborate a cryptocurrency regulatory framework aimed at safeguarding users from the dangers of fraud and imposing sanctions in situations of misuse. Our proposed national blockchain roadmap includes emerging priorities such as licensed entities, digital divide reduction, remittances digitisation, Ethereum 2.0, blockchain FDI, e-voting, and the quadruple helix system.

Changing patterns of soil water content and relationship with national wheat and maize production in Europe

The warming of the climate and shrinking freshwater resources pose serious challenges to European agriculture. Meeting these challenges demands a thorough knowledge of the major trends in soil moisture patterns across the continent over time. Charting the available soil water (ASW) content (m3 m-3) derived from the ERA5 Land dataset in grid cells of 0.1° × 0.1°, the highest values occurred in the Alpine, Baltic and West Balkan countries, as well as in North Western Europe. However, a major part of the Mediterranean and the Carpathian-Balkan regions and Eastern Europe recorded the driest soils over recent decades. The annual average ASW decreased over almost the entire continent from 1981 to 2007, but to the greatest degree in Eastern Europe, while Northern Europe suffered least of all. For the summer half of the year, the available water content of the top 28 cm soil significantly decreased in 45.5 % of European croplands, while only 1.0% showed a significant moisture increase. Summer half-year moisture declined across almost the entirety of Eastern Europe, threatening the reproductive stage of wheat and maize vegetation period. Soil water content had a significant positive impact on wheat yields in an estimated 64.3 % of European wheat fields, and a negative one in 5.7 %. In the case of maize yields the positive impact of ASW was present in an estimated 89.4 % of maize-growing areas, explaining an estimated 46–72 % of maize yield variances in the majority of top European maize-producing countries. In contrast to wheat, negative soil water content impact for maize in the continent was not observed. Significant ASW - wheat and ASW - maize yield relationships were found with decreasing summer half year ASW in 32.0 % and 35.2 % of European croplands, respectively. The coexistence of the crop yield dependence on soil moisture and the decrease in available soil water content pose a considerable threat to grain production stability over extensive regions of Eastern and Western Europe. These warning signs call for an effective intervention on behalf of soil water conservation in European croplands.