Open data portals are web services that serve as a central access point for all government-published open data and can exist at local, regional, national, and international levels. They are an ...important element of most open data initiatives that have enabled a large amount of government data to be widely available. However, data quantity and quality are not the only aspects that should be considered when publishing data. To improve the reusability of data and to achieve greater impact and benefits from open data, it is important to consider user-oriented aspects of the portal management, discovery, and use of data (e.g., organizing the portal in a user-centric way, providing accurate metadata, using a standardized and open data format, etc.). In this paper, we adopted the metrics proposed by the European Commission to assess compliance of the Croatian Open Data Portal with 10 user-oriented principles that open data portals should implement in terms of sustainability and added value. While the results show the government’s efforts in publishing data, some aspects such as better collaboration with data providers and other data portals, offering different visualization tools, etc. need to be improved to achieve active use and impact.
The 2019 European Open Data Directive identifies geospatial data as data that could have a major impact on human activities (high-value data, HVD) and advocates its provision as open data (OD), i.e., ...without barriers to access and re-use. Although Croatia has implemented OD policies to support the provision of open data, many geospatial data are still not available, or if available, their level of openness ranks Croatia lower than Slovenia and Serbia on some ranking lists. Benchmarking tools have proven to be a powerful tool in identifying barriers in OD. This paper, therefore, benchmarks the level of openness and provision of geospatial HVD in Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia, using the extended and modified Global Open Data Index methodology (GODI Plus). It is expected that this will provide an answer to the status of OD policies and government engagement in OD in Croatia and identify good OD practices among the three countries analyzed. Furthermore, the results will be a baseline benchmark for future HVD analyses. The results reveal low data openness for Croatia and Serbia, high data openness for Slovenia, and a low level of government engagement in all three proposed countries.
Cartographic symbols on crisis maps serve as means of depicting information about the position, properties, and/or numerical values of objects, phenomena or actions specific to crisis mapping. Many ...crisis cartographic visualisations require simple, clear, categorised and visually organised symbols that can be easily read and understood by a wide range of crisis map users. Cartographic symbol sets for crisis mapping depend on effective graphic design, good availability (sharing and promotion, dissemination and promulgation) and standardisation (ensuring the general and repeatable use of map symbols). In this research, our aim was to examine the extent of these challenges in current cartographic symbology for crisis mapping. Through a comparative study of prominent symbol sets, we analysed efforts invested so far and proposed future directions. The results of this study may be of assistance in understanding less unified or coherent symbologies currently in use, or in revising or amplifying existing sets for future publication.
Cartographic communication through crisis maps takes place in a unique environment characterised by the immediate risks of considerable loss and stress. Many such maps are designed by practitioners ...with limited resources, pressured for time, and who often fail to pay the necessary attention to map graphics. This can reduce map clarity and make orientation to and understanding of essential crisis information difficult. To identify the most frequent shortcomings that may compromise the interpretation of depicted objects, phenomena presented, and actions required, we assessed the map graphics of 106 maps specifically designed for communication and action in crises. The results showed that they were often visually overloaded. Crisis data were not conveyed by appropriate cartographic representations, and due to the inappropriate use of visual variables, the associative and selective properties of cartographic symbols were overlooked, and their ordered and quantitative features ignored. The use of colour was often not adapted to conventional visual language, and colour symbolism was not always taken into account. The cartographic symbols used were often incomprehensible, illegible, ambiguous, and unclassified, and they lacked symbolism and hierarchical organisation. The article aims to address these problems by proposing guidelines which do not require much time or expertise, but which would ensure that cartographically correct crisis maps are well designed. Objects, phenomena or actions specific to crisis management would be indicated using appropriate map graphics and their importance highlighted, so as to make interpretation easier for all participants in a crisis event, and so facilitate crisis communication and response.
Mines remaining from the Homeland War are a huge problem in Croatia. The joint work of experts in humanitarian demining and military doctrines in certain geographical areas, and scientists of various ...profiles, has resulted in a concept for producing mine danger maps, which show areas and levels of potential hazards from mines, i.e. suspected hazardous areas. This paper presents the concept for producing mine danger maps for a suspected hazardous area (Svilaja, Croatia). The input data comprise information stored in mine information systems and additional data collected on the suspected hazardous area (e.g. bunkers and shelters for tanks, artillery and people). The resulting maps (
Main Map
) seek to improve the identification of areas where there is no threat so that parts of suspected hazardous areas can be proposed for mine reduction, or suspected hazardous areas can be better defined.
Open data is undoubtedly one of the most exciting innovations of the last decade. Data that can be (re)used freely and without restrictions is a key driver for achieving many environmental goals. ...Through the use of open crowdsourcing tools, noise monitoring is enabled by the active participation of citizens who measure noise and thus contribute to the creation of a dynamic noise map. This is consistent with the lifecycle of open data - the design of the process and practices for handling data from its creation, to the provision of open data, to its use by various parties. By participating in the crowdsourcing processes, users act as both consumers and providers of data; with enhanced capabilities of data users, such as commenting, rating, processing, or customizing to their specific needs; and then publishing new versions of the same or their own new datasets. In this way, better communication and collaboration between data users and data providers creates another root for a sustainable ecosystem by closing information and evaluation loops by supporting a broader range of use cases in services and applications on ecological issues.
The paper presents the development of an automated procedure for creating a small-scale world political map from OpenStreetMap (OSM) data, and the map itself. A novel approach was used for ...cartographic processing, while the fitness for use of OSM data for this task was evaluated. It was anticipated and shown that creating a world political map from OSM data is a methodologically and technologically demanding task. The result was a political map of the world at a scale of 1:30,000,000, showing independent states, dependencies and areas of special sovereignty as in the OSM data set, with no adaptation to specific political recognition issues. A high degree of automation built on open-source software was achieved. The resulting map is an intermediate stage of production, requiring modest manual intervention for the final map. By allocating a code to the community (http://github.com/GEOF-OSGL/OSMPoliticalMap), we have provided opportunities for its continuing development.
Background
Published data regarding the impact of obesity on COVID-19 outcomes are inconsistent. However, in most studies, body composition was assessed using body mass index (BMI) alone, thus ...neglecting the presence and distribution of adipose tissue. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the impact of body and visceral fat on COVID-19 outcomes.
Methods
Observational, prospective cohort study included 216 consecutive COVID-19 patients hospitalized at University Clinical Center Kragujevac (Serbia) from October to December 2021. Body composition was assessed using the BMI, body fat percentage (%BF), and visceral fat (VF)
via
bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). In addition to anthropometric measurements, variables in the research were socio-demographic and medical history data, as well as admission inflammatory biomarkers. Primary end-points were fatal outcomes and intensive care unit (ICU) admission.
Results
The overall prevalence of obesity was 39.3% according to BMI and 50.9% according to % BF, while 38.4% of patients had very high VF levels. After adjusting odds ratio values for cofounding variables and obesity-related conditions, all three anthropometric parameters were significant predictors of primary end-points. However, we note that % BF and VF, compared to BMI, were stronger predictors of both mortality (aOR 3.353, aOR 3.05, and aOR 2.387, respectively) and ICU admission adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 7.141, aOR 3.424, and aOR 3.133, respectively.
Conclusion
Obesity is linked with COVID-19 mortality and ICU admission, with BIA measurements being stronger predictors of outcome compared to BMI use alone.
: We aimed to single out admission predictors of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and investigate the role of bioelectrical impedance (BIA) measurements in ...ARDS development.
: An observational, prospective cohort study was conducted on 407 consecutive COVID-19 patients hospitalized at the University Clinical Center Kragujevac between September 2021 and March 2022. Patients were followed during the hospitalization, and ARDS was observed as a primary endpoint. Body composition was assessed using the BMI, body fat percentage (BF%), and visceral fat (VF) via BIA. Within 24 h of admission, patients were sampled for blood gas and laboratory analysis.
: Patients with BMI above 30 kg/m
, very high BF%, and/or very high VF levels were at a significantly higher risk of developing ARDS compared to nonobese patients (OR: 4.568, 8.892, and 2.448, respectively). In addition, after performing multiple regression analysis, six admission predictors of ARDS were singled out: (1) very high BF (aOR 8.059), (2) SaO
< 87.5 (aOR 5.120), (3) IL-6 > 59.75 (aOR 4.089), (4) low lymphocyte count (aOR 2.880), (5) female sex (aOR 2.290), and (6) age < 68.5 (aOR 1.976).
: Obesity is an important risk factor for the clinical deterioration of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. BF%, assessed through BIA measuring, was the strongest independent predictor of ARDS in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
In this study we investigated gait measurement with wearable sensor for subjects with and without multiple sclerosis (MS) and evaluation gait function.The gait function was measured with Avatar ...sensors system in 3 patients with MS and in 3 healthy subjects without MS. The system consists of a main sensor node and three additional fixtures. Each sensor node is wearing three-axial accelerometer and two-axis gyroscope. Cross-correlation analysis with the walk signal was applied.Coefficient values from cross-correlation are determined for all 6 subjects. Then for a new unknown subject the cross-correlation was applied and the mean value cross-correlation for healthy subjects was 0.0477, while in MS subjects this value was 0.0207. A proven validation for this small training system has shown the evidence for different gait analysis for MS and healthy subjects.This small study opens a new avenue for clinical diagnosis of potential MS subjects while wearable sensor can provide an objective framework for assessing gait abnormality. The measured data can provide better understanding on the progression of the disease and response to treatment.
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